Storm Clouds
by Delphoxi
Summary: She's Varia's newest member. He's Vongola's strongest guardian. The red string of fate seems to have brought the two together... perhaps? HibarixOC
1. The Varia

This is an experimental attempt at a HibarixOC story featuring snippets of their daily lives and the progress of an organic relationship between the two characters. Hopefully, this will turn out well!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language due to Squalo's mouth. And the OC's. Rating may also change depending on how the story proceeds.

Enjoy!

* * *

"VOI! WHERE'S THE FUCKING BOX WITH MY THINGS?"

A spiky-haired brunette cringed as he listened to the extremely loud yelling. Tsuna had been standing outside the heavy mahogany doors for at least ten minutes now, attempting to gather the courage to push the button beside the door.

"Hey, useless. Press the button," a deep voice startled the reluctant mafioso.

Tsuna turned towards the owner of the voice with a comically terrified expression as he made eye contact with the nonchalant man standing beside him, glaringly contrasting with Tsuna's slightly-worn street clothes as he dressed in an immaculately pressed suit. A sharp glare from underneath the brim of Reborn's fedora combined with over six feet of towering menacingly over the high-schooler did nothing to instil a different kind of fear into the mafioso. "I can't! They're still too scary!"

Indeed, after having his powers peak at a point where they were considered legendary, it was still near-impossible for sixteen-year-old Tsuna to stomach certain fears - one of them was dealing with the infamously dangerous and volatile assassin squad, the Varia.

Squalo was the scariest one of them all, if you didn't count Xanxus. And said person sounded to be in the foulest of moods, currently, and Tsuna was less than enthusiastic to face him.

"Hey, has anyone seen a box with my knives? I'm missing one. I'm pretty sure I had ten of them," Belphegor. That was also another particularly scary one. Eldritch and borderline asylum-worthy insane, the Decimo was not a big fan of the self-proclaimed prince.

"I'll go look!" a female voice? Tsuna turned to face the Sun Arcobaleno, a startled look on his face. "Who's that?"

Reborn pulled impatiently at his favorite fedora, and Leon crawled onto his hand. Stroking the reptile with his fingers, Reborn gave his reply, "That's probably their newest member. I heard from the Ninth that the Varia recruited another officer because they were missing a specialty for some missions of theirs. _Now_ will you press the doorbell?"

A series of crashing and thumping startled the boy, and the Vongola Decimo winced as Squalo swore loudly.

"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!"

"Er…Bel? I think I found the last box,"

"Ka_-ching_,"

"WHO THE FUCK PUT THIS BOX HERE!?"

"Oh dear! Squ-chan, that's why I told you to walk slowly!"

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE LUSSURIA! JUST GET THESE KNIVES OUTTA ME!"

"Shishishishi. Clean them before you return them to me, peasant,"

"Does it hurt that bad, Kisame?"

"DON'T FUCKING CALL ME KISAME, YOU FUCKING CIRCUS TRASH! AND WHO THE FUCK ARRANGES THEIR KNIVES IN A BOX WITH THE BLADES POINTING UPWARDS!?"

"Bel does?"

"Got a problem with that? Shishishishishi,"

"FUCK OFF YOU WORTHLESS SCUM!"

Tsuna cringed at the vulgarity that was apparently rebuffed without any offense taken. Reborn sighed and smacked Tsuna on the back of the head. "Stop standing there and eavesdropping. Ring the doorbell,"

"I-I don't want to," Tsuna mumbled, terrified at the very thought of having to face the very boisterous and dangerous assassin squad. Squalo was always brandishing around his sword around for no reason as a reflex when he wasn't on duty, and Tsuna didn't even want to find out what the other members of the Varia did when they weren't on missions. And not to mention the fact that Xanxus would definitely kill him if he saw Tsuna.

Nopenopenope. There was no way he was going to see the unpredictable leader of the psychopathic assassin group.

"Useless," Reborn muttered, before aiming his fist at the back of Tsuna's head, making the boy fall forwards. His forehead came into contact with the doorbell, and it rang; a brassy chime resonated throughout the mansion.

"Oh no!" Tsuna immediately got up, skipping the part where he usually groaned and groused, due to the fact that the sore tingling on his forehead meant that-

"Visitors!" quick footsteps could be heard near the door, and a very excited Lussuria threw the doors wide open. Instead of his usual black trenchcoat, the assassin had opted for a colourful number that combined purple, blue and pink, which clashed horribly with the green tuft of hair that sat swept to the side of his brown hair. "Welcome!"

Tsuna stood there with a dumbstruck look on his face, eyes hurting from the psychedelic patterns on Lussuria's clothes. His arms were still cradling the bento his mother had made him take to give to the Varia as a housewarming gift - surprisingly, he had not dropped it when Reborn had hit him. "Er… hi there,"

"Ciaossu," Reborn tipped back his fedora slightly in greeting. "Settling in okay?"

The faux-hawked Sun Guardian peered closely at the cowering high schooler, and recognition registered on his face as he raised his eyebrows and grinned widely. "Squ-chan! Look who I found at the door!" he pulled his head back into the house to yell.

A silver-crowned blonde popped up beside the Muay Thai boxer at Lussuria's mention of visitors. He tilted his head back in interest, and smirk was plastered onto his face as he laughed spookily in a way that made chills run down the Vongola's spine. "It's the Vongola peasant and the Arcobaleno!" Belphegor announced with a glee that made Tsuna very, very nervous. His eyes were fixed on the open box of customised knives that the Storm Guardian had tucked under his arm.

"DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A FUCK? WHO IS IT ANYWAY?"

"The Vongola peasant and the Arcobaleno, captain. I told you that, didn't I?"

Tsuna emitted a strangled squeak at the sight of the silver-haired Varia captain standing a little way behind Lussuria. Squalo, with no change in the perpetual frown on his face, stepped forwards for a better look before a glint of recognition glazed his eyes. The brunette took a hesitant step backwards immediately as a psychotic grin grew on the swordsman's face.

"Well look who it is! It's the snot-nosed Decimo brat!" Squalo stopped beside Lussuria, "What do you want?"

Thrusting his arms forward, Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut as he shoved the bento into Squalo's face. "My mom said to give this to you! She said you'd probably be too busy to make dinner after unpacking, so she made dinner for you!"

Tsuna opened one eye warily to see an extremely displeased expression on Squalo's face. "WE DON'T NEED YOUR CHARITY, GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!" Squalo rammed a hand against the doorframe.

Tsuna backed up, trembling in fright. "Reborn, help!" he cast a desperate look over at his tutor, but the man had already left his side and was standing a few feet away from where he had been. Reborn turned to look at Tsuna, before turning his back on him and took a lazy drag of a half-burnt cigarette. When had he moved!? Tsuna wanted to kick him. It was his fault that he was in this predicament in the first place! If the Sun Arcobaleno had only allowed him to leave the bento on the doorstep, he wouldn't have had to face the scariest group of assassins alive!

"Food! Man, am I hungry. I hope there's onigiri,"

Both prey and predator stopped and looked at the sudden interruption. A dark-haired girl around Tsuna's age clad in the standard colours of the Varia squad - black - stood behind Lussuria. Pulling down a pair of goggles from around her eyes, her green eyes sparkled with inquisitiveness as she looked up at Squalo. "Hey, Kisame. Won't this save us the trouble of having to go out and buy take-out? I mean, the chef's not here yet, and none of us can cook for shit."

Lussuria furrowed his brows, a dramatically worried expression on his face as he rested a gloved hand against his cheek. "Ri-chan's right, Squ! We're not even properly accustomed to the layout of the area yet! We could get lost!"

Belphegor snickered as he picked up a knife from the box and toyed with the blade. "Two against one, captain. Looks like we'll have to accept the peasant's offering,"

Squalo glared at the girl, making an irritated sound. "Bah! Do whatever the fuck you want!" he grumbled, stomping back inside.

Tsuna chuckled nervously. "Here's the bento," he passed the large parcel over to the Sun Guardian.

"Please thank your mother for us! This is such a lovely gesture! The Boss is in his room right now. Would you like to see him?" Lussuria gestured towards the vast hallway, "His chambers are up the second floor. The stairs are just down the end of this hallway."

Tsuna was quick to shake his head. Pop in and say hi to a man who would rather see the Decimo's head on a pike? "N-No! That's fine!" was his hasty rejection.

Lussuria shrugged. "Well, come on in!" he stepped back, "I'm sorry I can't talk with you, though. Bel and I have to finish moving our things into our rooms. Ri-chan here will keep you company!"

"She juggles," Belphegor added shortly, smirk still intact. The teenage prince then left with Lussuria, leaving the girl alone with Tsuna still standing outside on the doorstep, and Reborn, who flung a cigarette butt onto the ground and snuffed out the glowing end with the heel of his expensive Italian shoes.

The Arcobaleno finally made his way back to the doorway. His sharp gaze swept over the stranger analytically. "Who are you?"

Tsuna realized that he had no idea who the girl was, as Reborn began what seemed like a short interrogation. He looked at her surreptitiously, taking in the external details of the girl.

The ends of her black hair ghosted her shoulders, and her frame was slightly on the smaller end of the spectrum, clothed with a black hooded sweater that had sleeves that extended far beyond the normal length, covering up her hands. It was clear that the girl was a member of the Varia from the colour of her clothes - what with the black shorts, black goggles and leather boots - as the shield that held the symbol of the assassination squad was stitched onto the left sleeve of the sweater.

Her mouth opened, but instead of Japanese, a flurry of perfectly-accented Italian came out instead. Reborn raised an eyebrow, following her without missing a beat. He responded smoothly in Italian as well, leaving the brunette at a loss for words.

Tsuna, on the other hand, was struck by surprise. For a person that was clearly Asian, he had not expected Italian to come out of her mouth. Hadn't she been speaking Japanese perfectly just a few moments ago?

Five minutes passed, and when Reborn pulled out a gun from the holster beneath his jacket, alarm bells went off in Tsuna's head at the sight of the firearm. Was he about to shoot the girl!? The conversation had sounded so harmless! Tsuna decided to interject in his loud Japanese before any blood could be shed. "I can't speak Italian!"

The conversation stopped immediately, as the spotlight focused on Tsuna. He suddenly felt very self-conscious. "Er, if it's alright, could you please speak in Japanese?"

The girl tilted her head sideways, giving the high-schooler an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that," the Japanese slid back without any trace of a European accent, "Y'see, I've just heard stories of Reborn back in Italy. It's amazing how he's got his form back in the span of two years!"

'_That doesn't even explain why you were speaking in Italian!' _Tsuna shouted mentally in frustration. _'It also doesn't explain why Reborn pulled the gun out!'_

"Yang Riko," Reborn tucked the gun back into the holster, "I was aware that the Varia had recruited a new member, but I wasn't aware of the fact that you were Tsuna's age,"

"Oh, is _that _his name?" Riko shifted her attention from Reborn and towards Tsuna. "Y'see, the Boss refers to you as 'that trash' while Kisame calls you 'wimpy trash', so I'm not really familiar with your name, Vongola Decimo,"

She was clearly, _clearly_ an expert at Japanese, seeing how she had no problems quoting the abusive names that the Varia had for him. Tsuna cringed at the derogatory appellations.

"Yang Riko! Assassin number V009," A sleeved-covered hand was shoved in his direction, "It's pretty cool to put a face next to the name! Well, the Vongola Decimo name, anyway."

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, but you can call me Tsuna," Tsuna reluctantly took the sleeve-covered hand that Riko offered and shook it. Assassin number? "Is it true?"

"What's your role as a high-ranking Varia officer?" Reborn interjected, before Riko could reply, "I wasn't aware that they were missing a key set of abilities. Are you the Cloud Guardian replacement?"

"Well, I'm not a Guardian of any sort," she said, "Since Bel's the Storm Guardian. But I do have a ring,"

Reborn crossed his arms. "You're a storm attribute person, I see," he mused.

Tsuna was slightly surprised that Riko was so… normal. He had half-expected the newest member of the Varia to be just as frightening and batty as the rest of the bunch, but aside from the sliver of queer eccentricity displayed by her appearance and ability to talk to Squalo normally, Riko was definitely not what the Vongola heir had anticipated.

"Did you meet the standards of Varia quality?" another question from Reborn. This time, a shiver ran up Tsuna's spine as he realized that he had possibly misjudged Riko from her character.

_'That's right! The Varia are all first-class assassins! If Riko's part of the top ranks, that means-!'_

The brunette looked at the seemingly-normal Varia officer in horror. _'- SHE MUST BE SCARY!'_

Riko nodded in response to the Sun Arcobaleno's question. "Sure did," she confirmed, causing Tsuna to start inching away.

_'Don't want anything to do with the Mafia, don't want anything to do with the Mafia…'_

Reborn rubbed a hand against his chin thoughtfully. "So, what's the specialty the Varia were missing? I wasn't aware that they were lacking in something. Gola Mosca's loss didn't have that much effect, since he was barely in the Varia. He hasn't been around since the ring battles, and that was two years ago."

"Does it matter what my specialty is?" Riko asked, raising an eyebrow, "I mean, we have Mammon, but we've also got Fran. He's off training with Rokudo Mukuro right now, of course, but he's number V008, so he's definitely coming to join us soon."

Reborn narrowed his eyes in suspicion. This girl was evading the question — was she hiding something? His expression did not go unnoticed by the assassin — she smiled. "Well, if you really must know—," she reached a hand behind her head, and pulled the hood of her sweater up, a pair of unidentifiable animal ears sewn to the hood stuck up proudly, "— I'm the mascot!"

Tsuna stared at her, baffled. Reborn merely smirked.

"VOI RIKO! CLEAN UP YOUR SHIT!"

At the sound of the swordsman's voice, Riko sighed, letting the hood fall back against her back. "I'm COMING, KISAME! Calm YOUR TITS!" she turned back inside to yell, before facing the tutor-student pair again. "Look, I've got to go now. Thanks again for the food! I'll bring the containers around to your place when we're done with them. See you soon, I guess?"

Reborn nodded — this would have to satisfy his curiosity for now. "Say hi to Xanxus for us,"

"O-Or don't…" Tsuna mumbled, "B-Bye…"

"Ciao!" and with that, the wooden doors shut with a thud.

"Is she really the mascot, Reborn?"

"We should get one too. We mustn't lose to them."

"You're ignoring my question!"

* * *

Let me know how you liked it!

Delphoxi


	2. The Takoyaki Box Incident

Thank you for the follows/alerts/reviews! Your support is greatly appreciated. This chapter's going to be pretty short, but I'll probably be updating with the next one in a few days.

Don't really have much to say other than that… Enjoy!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language due to Squalo's mouth. And the OC's.

* * *

"Shit. I shouldn't have stopped for that takoyaki…"

Green eyes covered by a pair of black aviator goggles looked down at an empty cardboard box, and then back up to survey the pavement ahead of her. Wadding up the cardboard, she turned to read the street sign — her eyes glazed over as soon as she attempted to comprehend the mixture of kanji and hiragana.

"Tch," she clicked her tongue. She still couldn't read it, after all. Second day in Japan and she was already lost in the streets of Namimori. Squalo had yelled at them in the morning about doing a survey of the town, and a few hours later, she had found herself at the very edge of the group as they trudged down the sidewalks of the relatively buzzing shopping district. Enticed by the smells of the octopus-filled dumplings, Riko had stopped for a moment to buy the street snack and before she knew it, she was alone and lost.

A small part of her was glad that the Decimo didn't live in a concrete jungle like Tokyo, which would've meant that navigating the streets would be ten times harder, and another tiny part was irked that she was still unable to read the asian characters despite the crash course she took with the rest of the Varia right before they relocated.

"FUCK YOU NONO!"

But a big, _big _part of her was mad that they had to leave Italy at all, at the request of the Vongola Nono, and move halfway across the world.

"Who dares disturb the peace of Namimori?"

Snapping her head to the tree next to her, Riko looked up.

Hidden amongst the leaves, she could see a silver gleam, and her eyes narrowed behind the tinted lens of her goggles. Without a second thought, she raised her hand and chucked the wadded-up takoyaki container at the figure hidden amongst the branches. It bounced off, and landed on the pavement.

A murderous aura radiated from the tree next to her.

_Whoosh!_

In that instant, the Varia assassin narrowed her eyes and immediately took a sidestep. A person had landed where she had been standing a split second earlier.

"The fuck is wrong with you?!" she yelped, taking a few more steps back, away from her assailant.

The silver glint had been a rod-shaped object that the person had been carrying, and now that she was a safe distance away from him, she could clearly discern the person who had attempted to attack her.

A full head taller than her, the boy had dark ebony hair that loosely framed his angular jaw. Cold, grey eyes glinted in the dark, and a bored expression that, upon closer inspection, was actually a subtle look of irritation, was clearly scrawled across his face. Riko's eyes trailed down to the vibrant, eye-catching armband pinned onto the left sleeve of the black jacket that clung onto the boy's shoulders, but was unable to identify the words stitched onto the band.

The boy held up an arm, and brandished the rod, which Riko identified as a tonfa. "Do you want to die?" his voice was quiet, but exuded a threat that Riko recognized as one that wasn't empty.

The only thing on her mind, however, was a question that she then asked. "Do you staple your jacket onto your shirt?"

A dark eyebrow was raised. "Oh?" he stepped closer to the girl, "So the herbivore _does_ want me to bite it to death," A dangerous smile graced his face.

Ignoring his death threat, a flash caught her attention. Sharp, lethal spikes studded a silver cuff around his left wrist, framing a _very_ familiar emblem. A vague recollection surfaced — she had heard of a weapon with that description. Her eyes widened in recognition.

Riko startled chuckling nervously — this was _definitely_ not good.

The purple gemstone. The roman numeral of the tenth generation. Spikes that embodied the animal used as a weapon in battle. It was the bracelet that the Cloud Guardian of the Vongola Decimo wore.

And who was the Cloud Guardian?

Hibari Kyoya, the person whom her seniors had told her was the most terrifying and powerful guardian in the Decimo Vongola Famiglia.

Well, at least they weren't exaggerating when they said he emitted a scary aura. His murderous intent was on the brink of suffocating, and Riko now regretted throwing that cardboard ball at him.

"Don't bother running," the cold voice sent nervous chills down her spine, "I never fail to catch my prey,"

She really, _really_ regretted it.

"Are you always this unfriendly, Kyoya?" A foot slid behind the other.

Grey eyes narrowed. How did she know his name? He held up the tonfa in a fighting stance. "You. Herbivore. How do you know my name?"

"The same way you don't know mine," Riko blinked at her response. What the fuck did she just say? That didn't even make sense at all!

"You're not making any sense, herbivore," Hibari's remark made her glare at him.

"Good, because _you _don't make any sense!" There. Better. That was better. _Slightly_ better.

Hibari had no change in expression, as he drew back, and lashed back out. Riko ducked once again, only narrowly missing the hit. She turned her heel.

The next lunge Hibari made was once again avoided, and Riko broke out into a sprint. "Sorry, Kyoya, but I want to live!" she yelled back, "But I'm not sorry for throwing the takoyaki box at you! You should pick that up and dispose of it, by the way! Littering is a petty crime!"

The cloud guardian fumed as he watched his prey turn a corner at the end of the street and disappear.

The chase was on.

* * *

And they meet! Let me know how you liked it! Reviews and follows are appreciated c:

Delphoxi


	3. The Bento Box of Failure

I was glad to see that you enjoyed Riko and Hibari's little encounter! This chapter won't have Hibari in it, but I promise there will be tons of Hibari facetime in future chapters!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language due to Squalo's mouth. And the OC's.

* * *

_Knock knock knock._

"I wonder if there's anyone at home…" green eyes fell to the piece of paper held in a sleeve-covered hand, "These were the directions Lussuria gave me…"

Shifting the empty bento boxes slightly in her other arm, she raised a hand to knock once more, when a shadow darkened the door in front of her. "Hey you! Who the hell are you? Get lost!" a deep voice barked.

Narrowing her eyes into slits behind the tinted lens of her goggles, Riko turned around to take a look at the newcomer. A silver-haired boy stood in front of her, towering over her with a menacing leer. A half-burnt cigarette was clenched between his teeth; smouldering ash fell to the ground as the two teenagers sized each other up.

"Oh, looks like Tsuna has a visitor!" a distinctly male voice piped up from behind the silver-haired boy, "Gokudera, are you being nice?"

Riko pulled her attention away from the hostile Gokudera, and directed it towards the person who had spoken. An easygoing smile was apparent on his tanned face, and her eyes trailed towards the cloth-wrapped sword he had slung across his back, then towards the flashy silver pendant that hung around his neck.

Her brain instantly made the connection.

"You're Yamamoto Takeshi, aren't you?" her eyes gleamed with recognition, as she pulled down her goggles, "Kisame said that you're the guy that just won't quit smiling, but he failed to mention you were good-looking."

Yamamoto blinked. "Kisame?" he echoed in confusion.

"Yamamoto? More like _Yum_amoto," the assassin winked roguishly, "Single, are you?"

"If you mean by me not having a girlfriend, then yes," Yamamoto chuckled, "What's your name?"

"Yang Riko, but feel free to call me Riko,"

"Riko? That's a nice name!"

"You like that? You should hear my phone number,"

Gokudera gawked as the swordsman continued chatting with the girl, and exchanging phone numbers, oblivious to the fact that she was flirting with him. The storm guardian, however, knew exactly what she was doing. "Femme fatale?!"

"Mascot, bitch."

"Why you-!" ringed fingers dug into pockets, drawing out sticks of dynamite.

Riko didn't budge. Lifting an eyebrow, the half-Japanese opened her mouth. "Dynamite? That's so…primordial," her attention was focused on the explosive sticks wedged between the storm guardian's fingers.

Gokudera clenched his teeth. "Why you-!"

"Now, now, don't get so hasty," the baseball fanatic clamped a hand heavily on his friend's shoulder, "Are you looking for Tsuna?"

Riko shrugged noncommittally. "I'm looking for anyone who can take these off my hands," she raised the bento boxes, "Not Tsunayoshi in particular,"

Gokudera clicked his tongue rudely. "No one wants to buy your cheap wares, bitch."

A dark eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Hey you, look here now, you little insolent fuck-,"

"Riko!"

Tsuna stood in the driveway with a horrified expression on his face. The day had been very uneventful so far, with him beginning the morning with the usual three-mile run away from a dog that chased him everyday on his way to school without fail. Lunch had been equally as unfortunate, because he had spent the entire hour redoing the math homework the dog had unceremoniously ripped apart when Tsuna had dropped it during the chase. All in all, it had been a typical day for the Vongola Decimo, until he saw a familiar black-clothed girl standing in what looked like an escalating argument with his right-hand guardian.

And then the day immediately became ten times worse.

"Tenth!" Gokudera immediately brightened up, shoving his dynamites back into his pockets and practically bounding towards his boss, the girl forgotten, "Where were you after school? You said that you couldn't walk home with us!"

He had been kept in detention for failing to finish his math homework on time — yet another typical thing to happen in a day in the life of Sawada Tsunayoshi, reluctant tenth-boss-to-be of the Vongola Famiglia. "N-Nothing. That's besides the point! Riko, what are you doing here?!"

The spotlight suddenly focused on the girl whose presence had been ignored as soon as Tsuna had appeared. Riko raised the bento boxes. "I was sent here to return these. Boss said: 'They reek of failure, just like that scummy wimp, and I don't want the smell to stay in the mansion. Get rid of them.' So I did."

"Hee!" Tsuna winced at the assassin's nonchalant words — he knew she wasn't trying to be mean, since she was merely passing on a message. But still! Hadn't she heard of verbal filters?! At times like these, the brunette really, really wished he had never met Reborn.

"My, my. I see the Varia has sent a representative to return our welcome greeting with a greeting of their own. Ciaossu, Yang Riko," a deep voice commented.

Speak of the devil.

The Sun Arcobaleno stood in the open doorway, having heard some loud bickering that had woken him up from his afternoon nap. Two years out of his infant form, but he still could not shake off the habits he had acquired from the long years spent as an infant.

Riko nodded her head in greeting. "Ciao, Reborn."

Gokudera and Yamamoto blinked in apparent confusion. "The Varia?" they echoed simultaneously.

It was only then they realised that the Varia's proud emblem was stitched onto the sleeves of the girl's sweater, at which they openly expressed their surprise with widened eyes.

"The Varia? As in, Squalo's Varia?" Yamamoto wanted to know.

"Well, technically Kisame's just the captain, but I guess you could put it that way."

"How's that even possible? You radiate weakness! There's no way you're an assassin!" Gokudera growled.

Riko glared at the half-Italian. "Wanna go a few rounds with me, punk?"

He immediately rose to the bait. "I won't back down just because you're a weak-ass girl!"

Tsuna yelped. "Gokudera! Riko! Please don't fight!" he was going to find it very difficult to explain to his mother why, once again, the driveway was destroyed from yet another one of his friend's explosives.

"Came here to meet Tsuna's family, did you?" Reborn interjected, completely dismissing the animosity between the storm guardian and assassin.

"Oh fuck, no. I wasn't told to do that. I was simply sent to return these," Riko once again raised the empty containers, "And I'm pretty sure I've overstayed my welcome." Shoving the containers into Gokudera's arms, the boy fumbled with them, having been caught off-guard.

She jogged towards the gate. "See you around, Vongola Decimo!" and then she turned towards Yamamoto, "If you wanna hang out, you know how to reach me," she added with a wink.

And with that, she was gone.

Unable to find his balance, the containers fell onto the ground with a loud clatter, and Gokudera fumed as he bent over to pick them up. "That little bitch!"

"I thought she was nice," Yamamoto commented with a grin, picking up a container and handing it over to the arsonist, who snatched it away roughly. "Is she really working with Squalo?"

"Nice? Hah, you're a fucking comedian!" Gokudera muttered as he trudged inside with the containers.

Tsuna chuckled nervously — an angry Gokudera was a scary Gokudera. "She said she was the mascot," he said with a reluctant tone, "But somehow I don't believe it."

Reborn shook his head, crossing his arms. "Are you in any position to make judgements like that, Tsuna? Useless people shouldn't be talking at all."

"R-Reborn!"

Yamamoto laughed as he patted his friend's shoulder. "In any case, I hope we get to hang out with the rest of them soon!" he said as they started to head inside the house, "I haven't seen Squalo in a while!"

"No way, Yamamoto! It's already scary enough to hear their names!"

The athlete's passing comment left a very intrigued hitman standing in the doorway, as he stepped aside to let the teenagers pass through. Rubbing a hand thoughtfully against his chin, he pulled the door shut as he started to think.

Hanging out? That sounded like something that could be arranged…

* * *

Gokudera and Riko are definitely characters destined to be at loggerheads with each other! I enjoyed writing this, and I hope you did too!

Delphoxi


	4. The Trouble He Caused When He Walked In

Taking this opportunity to thank the reviewers whom I could not reach due to not being logged in or being anonymous. You're all lovely and wonderful people!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: Coarse language.

* * *

"TURN DOWN FOR WHAT!"

"TURN DOWN FOR WHAT!"

The heavy rap music blasted in Riko's ears as she turned a corner, stepping aside to allow another pedestrian who was walking in a faster pace, past her. The streets were beginning to look familiar, and muscle memory allowed the girl to walk without worrying about getting lost.

A blur of yellow seen from the corner of one eye caught Riko's attention. Looking up, she could see a yellow-feathered bird gliding through the air, chirping happily as it circled overhead. Of course, if Riko hadn't had loud American music blasting in her ears, she would've heard the bird repeat the phrase: 'Hibari! Hibari! Prey! Prey!'

Pulling out her iPod to change the track, Riko shuffled through a few songs before settling for a new one. A catchy, infectious melody started playing, and Riko bobbed her head along to the music, parting her lips in anticipation for the chorus that she knew all too well.

"I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN SO SHAME ON ME NOW!"

Ah, trashy, pop music. God bless America for America's Top 40.

Opening her mouth, she started to sing along to the lyrics rather loudly, attracting a few curious stares that didn't last very long. She had been sent out to do some shopping for Bel, who seemed to regard her as a slave and an errand-girl rather than a comrade-in-arms, and that was why she was once again alone.

No matter, because a pair of expensive leather shoes clicked ominously on the concrete pavement as they stopped a little way behind the slowly-advancing assassin.

Trouble was _definitely_ walking in.

A cruel smile played on the person's lips; eyes of cold stone-grey glinted with a malice that was unmatched.

Time to go in for the kill.

Hibari calmly caught up to the unsuspecting girl in a few long strides. Standing directly behind her, he held up a tonfa with one had, and used the other to yank the earbuds out of her ears.

She immediately helped and spun around; a wild look flashed in her eyes as she raised her sleeve-covered hands to shield her face. The prefect left no time for his prey to assess the situation before dealing the first blow. Riko gasped and leapt backwards, narrowly - once again - missing being hit. A bad feeling she had about the weapon was that she could see herself breaking a few bones because of it, and she would be damned if she let it hit her!

The assassin caught the dark smirk on her attacker's face, and her heart immediately dropped down to her stomach like heavy lead. Fear slowly crept up her face, and she pulled her upper lip over her teeth in a half-brave and half-afraid snarl. "H-Hibari Kyoya!"

"I_ never_ fail to catch my prey."

She started backing away, but for every backwards step she took, the prefect took another step forwards, keeping the distance between them unchanged.

Finding the girl had been difficult, and Hibari had to give her props for being able to evade him for this long. It had been a couple of days since he had marked her as his prey, and hell was going to freeze over if he allowed it remain that way.

So, he had gone to the police station where he had a couple of connections, and intimidated their sketch artist into drawing up an accurate portrayal of the girl he was after. Satisfied, he'd left several grown men trembling in his wake as he exited the station, and had gotten Hibird to memorize the picture of the girl and had it take to the skies to find the girl.

He had never gone this far for a piece of prey before. But then, no prey had ever been able to escape his wrath for this long, either. Gripping his tonfas in his hands, he replayed the humiliation of losing to Rokudo Mukuro for the first time over two years ago in his mind, and knew that there was no way that this little herbivore was going to be allowed to disrespect him and get away with it. The humiliation itself would be unparalleled to what he had suffered at the mist guardian's vindictive hands.

He lunged for her again, aiming for a body blow. Riko yelped and jumped, launching herself above him, then somersaulting and landing behind him with a silent tap of her boots.

Realizing what she had just done very belatedly, Riko swore. "Oh, fuck."

That was _not_ supposed to happen.

Hibari turned to regard her with a cold expression of clinical interest on his face. Oh? It seemed that this particular herbivore was slowly evolving into something less pitiful. He could feel the intrigue grow within him; seeds of curiosity sprouting within him.

"So the herbivore has some skills other than running away and disturbing the peace, I see."

Hibari aimed his fist at her, and she grabbed his wrist and used it as a platform to launch herself into the air once again. The prefect immediately turned around and aimed a strike with his tonfa, seizing the opportunity to land a hit while she was still midair.

"Jesus motherfucking Christ!" Riko drew her leg up to shield her torso, and blocked the hit with her shin. Landing on one foot with a stumble, pain shot through her leg as she crouched down to survey the damage done. It was already turning an ugly blend of purple and blue, and from the growing bloodlust on the boy's face, he was just getting started.

As he walked closer towards her, Riko cowered and squeezed her eyes shut._ 'Looks like this is the end for me. Goodbye, halcyon days of mine! It was good while it lasted! Sixteen years was already an achievement in itself; I will never forget them!'_

_Bang!_

A gunshot erupted, leaving a ringing that wasn't unfamiliar in Riko's ears. She opened her eyes to see that Hibari had jumped backwards; there was a crack that had split open in the pavement where a bullet was embedded.

The prefect turned to glare at the shooter. "You," he hid his annoyance well as he acknowledged the person who had interrupted them.

Upon hearing Hibari's short non-greeting, the Varia assassin looked up to see a familiar black-suited man holding up a gun in his hand, tipping his fedora in greeting.

"Reborn!"

Spinning the gun in his hand, the Italian shoved the other hand into his pocket as he surveyed the damage in front of him. "Well, Hibari. I can see you've met the Varia's new assassin."

If he was surprised, he showed no signs of betraying it on his face. A bored expression remained on Hibari's face as he said, "Oh? You know this little herbivore?"

A vindictive smirk appeared on the man's face. "She's our ally, Hibari."

"I don't associate myself with groups. I hate crowding."

"You can be an ally without needing to crowd. Hurting Yang Riko would be hurting our ties with the Varia."

The hitman had never interfered with internal affairs like this before, but he knew it was time to be diplomatic. He had heard through the grapevine that a particularly influential teenager was out for blood — Varia blood, to be precise, and while he doubted that Hibari knew of her association with the assassination squad, he was still going to end up almost killing the girl if he decided to be merciless.

Hell hath no fury like a Hibari Kyoya scorned.

He usually left the aloof cloud guardian to do whatever he pleased; after all, he was the cloud that could not be tied down by anything or anyone. However, their relationship with the Varia was already unstable as it was, and one of their top members getting assaulted by their strongest guardian was not PR-friendly. They would be out for blood within seconds, and Tsuna could kiss goodbye to the chance of ever having the Varia respect and accept him as the heir of the Vongola Famiglia.

Waiting to see how Hibari would react, a tension sparked in the atmosphere. The prefect sighed, and walked towards the girl sitting on the ground. Bending over, he hooked a finger over the goggles that masked the upper half of her face, and yanked them down.

Green eyes met slate eyes with a defiance that barely masked the fear and resentment she felt for the ebony-haired prefect. A satisfied smile found its way to his face - she had been put in her place. He leaned forwards, and Riko winced, squeezing her eyes shut. He stopped beside her ear. "You are now my lackey, Yang Riko. Welcome to hell," he whispered, sending ominous chills down the girl's spine as his breath touched her ear.

Straightening his back, Hibari stepped back. Turning to face Reborn, he regarded the Sun Arcobaleno with a passive face. Without saying another word, he then turned around and started walking towards the direction from where he came, heading back to where ever he had previously been.

Shaking his head, Reborn watched as the assassin struggled to get up, noticing the bruise that had bloomed across her leg. Hibari hadn't left her unscathed, after all. "You agitated him, didn't you."

A statement, not a question. The hitman certainly knew his boss's cloud guardian well. Riko grimaced as she pressed a hand to the bruise. An external wound — she breathed out in relief. For a few minutes, she had thought that her bone had been fractured. That would've meant a few weeks out of action, which meant a few weeks with a very pissed off Squalo yelling at her for being a careless fuck. "In my defense, I didn't know it was that stupid fuck when I threw that takoyaki container at him."

Takoyaki container? Reborn decided he wasn't curious enough to ask. "Once Hibari marks you as his lackey, you're never going to be able to break away from him."

"He doesn't even know where I live."

"Hibari's got more influence here than you realize. How else do you think he was able to find you so quickly?"

Riko paused, mulling over the hitman's words. He wasn't wrong. How had he? She decided she was better off not knowing. The past was the past, anyway, even if it had been a mere ten minutes ago.

"Congratulations, you've just become a bridge," the hitman said with a small smile. Hibari had done his job for him, and he would have to thank him later, even if he had done so without realizing it. That was the cloud guardian, for you. "I look forward to seeing you a lot more now."

Reborn's words rang in her head as she slowly processed them. A bridge? Between what? The tenth Vongola Famiglia and the Varia?

Riko blanched.

"Oh, you can't be fucking serious."

The boss was going to kill her if he ever found out.

* * *

Ooooh Xanxus is gonn be _pissed_.

Delphoxi


	5. The Rage of Xanxus

Thank you to all you beautiful people for the reviews/follows/faves! I hope you enjoy this latest chapter of _Storm Clouds_. c:

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

There was very little in what the Varia could accomplish by being in Japan. That was the truth. So why were they in a country that was practically an island, thousands and thousands of miles away from the beautiful country they called their home?

Sawada Fucking Tsunayoshi.

Riko knew very well that the very mention of the Vongola Decimo was enough to send fine, antique china that had costed about a million euros to procure in an antique auction, flying and crashing into the wall, courtesy of the man that met his ultimate humiliation at Tsuna's hands. Xanxus became belligerent when it came to the teenage mafia heir — so much that he was the number one taboo subject in the Varia headquarters. (They checked already — they bought a ranking list from Fuuta de la Stella after a horrific bloodbath ensued because an underling mentioned serving tuna for dinner, which, yep, sounded a lot like Tsuna. Number two was, oddly, bell peppers.)

The only reason why Xanxus had even agreed to move to Namimori, Japan, where Tsuna — the object of his hateful, borderline psychopathic, obsession — lived, was because Timoteo explicitly told him he had to. _"Get to know your future boss!"_ he'd said, _"Then you can come back!"_

Xanxus had stormed away from that meeting and brooded in furious silence in his room for three weeks after that. The only time he emerged was when he was feeling particularly murderous, and shot the brains out of anyone that either foolishly or bravely dared to cross his path. He _could_ have said no — he _did _say no. But Timoteo was adamant and refused to budge, and so after six months of frenzied planning and preparations and crash-courses in reading and writing Japanese (they could all speak the language without a problem, surprisingly), the Varia moved their headquarters to Japan.

Which brought Riko back to her current predicament.

"_Hell will fucking freeze over before any of you try to make nice with that fucking scummy trash. If you do, ti ucciderò,"_ had been the baleful warning he had growled on the flight to Japan.

Well, it was going to be a bitch of a blizzard in hell, thanks to Hibari-I'm-so-fucking-great-Kyoya. Knowing how sly Reborn was, he probably already had a 'friendly' and 'innocent' letter in the mail, filled with contents gushing about how great it was for Riko to take the initiative to begin making friendly ties between the assassination squad and the Decimo Vongola Famiglia.

It wasn't like she as incapable of dealing with what she had christened as 'Boss's Bitch Fits'. Her first few weeks with the Varia had been somewhat unstable, but she had fit right in after Squalo had uncharacteristically — maybe her heritage reminded him of a certain rain guardian back in Japan? — taken her under his wing and became a mentor of sorts (of course he was every bit as abusive with her as he had been with the baseball ace).

The ability to talk to Xanxus was one that the silver-haired swordsman had passed down to the girl, and so she was able to spread her 'annoyingly infectious happiness' — as Bel and Mammon called it — to the sullen man they called their boss, who seemed to only disregard the girl with scoffs and snorts if he was in a gaming mood. Otherwise he mostly ignored everything she did or spoke _at_ him. The only time she was sure that her life was in danger was if she did something she wasn't supposed to — something that would definitely put the volatile man into a foul mood.

The bridge thing that Reborn had mentioned? That was one of those things.

Riko reluctantly pushed the doors of the mansion open. It was quiet. Eerily quiet? She couldn't tell — it was either always too quiet or too noisy in the headquarters.

"L-Lady Riko!"

Oh, _fuck _no.

The ebony-haired mascot turned with a forced smile to see a shaky man, dressed in the standard-issued Varia underling uniform. He seemed unharmed — physically, anyway. Xanxus had the power to inflict as much mental disaster as he could physical.

"Er, yes? Do you need something from me?"

"L-Lord Xanxus wants to s-see you…"

_Fuck_. "Did he say why?"

"N-No…"

Riko nodded tightly — almost mechanically. "Right," she marched herself up the elegantly arched staircase, and into the west wing, where Xanxus's — Riko found this hilarious and made a reference to Beauty and the Beast which Xanxus, when he was in one of his better moods, merely rewarded with a derisive snort — rooms were.

She came up to an identical set of heavy wooden doors like the ones in the front entrance. She stood there for a long time. In those minutes, she mentally prepared herself as she pulled down her goggles and left them around her neck, and stretched and warmed-up her muscles. If there was any danger of dying during this encounter with Xanxus, she wanted it to at least not be due to the fact she had pulled a muscle running away. There were better ways to die, and getting a cramp was not one of them.

Raising a sleeve covered hand, she tentatively knocked on the polished surface. "Boss?"

No answer. Well, Xanxus never answered anyway. Riko turned the handle and forced herself to step inside. "Boss?" she repeated, boots tapping quietly on the velvet carpet as she took one timid step at a time.

A chill washed down her spine; it was as if someone had poured a bucket of water down her back. Whipping her head around, she could vaguely make out a glowering pair of eyes in a darkened corner. A brooding man sat laconically draped in a plush armchair, his feet propped up on the coffee table next to him. His chin was rested on the back of one hand; the expression on his heavily-scarred face was very unreadable.

This was bad. Unreadable Xanxus was worse than openly raging Xanxus. You could never tell when he was going to pull a gun on you.

Skittish green eyes landed on an open envelope and letter lying next to a tray of crystal lowball glasses and a half-empty decanter of amber-coloured whiskey. The Vongola Decimo seal seemed to wink up at her tauntingly; the brazen X practically laughing at her impending demise.

The bloody fuckwit! Riko seethed quietly as she plotted revenge against Reborn (which was unlikely anyway, because literally no one could touch the legendary hit man). Xanxus continued watching her; like a predator that had cornered its prey. He was now taking his time to make the kill.

Fucking _carnivores_. Riko hated them. First Hibari Kyoya, and now Xanxus? When would it _end?!_

"Oi."

"You asked for me, Boss?"

"I got a letter. From Reborn."

Jesus Christ, he worked fast. It had barely been an hour or two since her encounter with Hibari.

"Did you?"

"He said something."

"Wow, and here I thought letters were meant to be empty."

Shit. Wrong move. She had forgotten one very important rule when entering the Boss's chambers when he was pissed — park your snark at the doors.

"He said that you had a little encounter with Hibari Kyoya."

Huh. He hadn't reacted to the snark. Maybe he was waiting for a fast, excruciating kill.

"Er, yes. An encounter." A boot slid up to rub self-consciously against the hour-old bruise that had bloomed brilliantly over her shin.

"Did you win?"

"It was more of a stalemate, really."

"I'll ask you again. Did. You. Win?"

Riko deliberated the choices of answers she had. On one hand, she could easily say yes, and if he believed her, she would get away scott-free. If she said yes, and he caught on to her lie, she would probably be six-feet under before next Tuesday. On the other, she could say no, and he would still kill her anyway.

"In some ways. The ways that only matter, anyway." A half-truth was the perfect solution! Riko quietly congratulated herself.

Xanxus scoffed. Riko froze.

Blood-red eyes focused on her. "All the ways matter."

Riko swallowed thickly. Her throat felt dry and parched. "Come again, Boss?"

"All. The. Fucking. Ways. Matter. We're not fucking second-rate assassins, are we?"

A sleeved hand ran over the Varia shield stitched onto the shoulder of her sweater nervously. "Uh, no, Boss."

"We don't settle for anything less than victory. That makes us champions._ Campioni_."

"Right you are, Boss."

_CRASH!_

Riko squeaked as she reflexively dodged and rolled out of the way, when a projectile had been launched in her direction. What was once a priceless, crystal tumbler, now laid in shattered pieces on the carpeted floor; the whiskey dampening the dusty red into a wet maroon. Rivulets of amber liquid dripped down the cream wallpaper. The girl turned to look at her boss in alarm — Xanxus had a bored expression across his face, as if he hadn't tried to harm her just seconds earlier.

"I want a champion," came the icy growl.

And what the fuck did that even mean?!

"Get out._ Scompaia!_" a tanned hand slid down to an empty lowball glass, and before he could chuck that one at her as well, Riko sprinted out of the room and into the hallway, yanking the door shut with a loud slam.

The green-eyed girl heaved a breathy sigh of relief. At least that ordeal was over. But what had the boss meant by wanting a champion? If he wanted someone to fight for him, she was definitely the last person he should have been asking. After all, he was better off asking Squalo, who was the emperor of chopsticks or something similar (Riko couldn't be bothered to remember).

Running to her own room, Riko went straight to the desk and sat down on the chair, pulling out a Naruto calendar (This month's character was Gaara tee hee). Flipping desperately through the future months, Riko stopped at the final month, December. Nothing had been marked in the calendar, she noted darkly. Pushing the calendar aside desolately, Riko stood up from the desk and flopped down onto the massive bed in the middle of the room.

She stared up at the ceiling.

_"QUANDO POSSO TORNARE A CASA!?"_

The official mascot of the Varia was in for a very, _very_ long stay.

* * *

Phew. That was hard to write. I kept coming up with conversations with very little dialogue and a lot of things being thrown, but I think this one turned out rather nicely! Oh yes, footnotes to show you translations of the Italian used in here...

_ti ucciderò - I will kill you_

_campioni - champions_

_scompaia - get lost/disappear_

_Quando posso tornare a casa - When can I go home_

Do let me know how you liked it! I enjoy hearing from you guys. I'll be updating slightly less frequently this entire month, for I'll be off to Italy on Thursday. Stay tuned, though! I'll try to keep up with my writing. c: Hugs and kisses for all!

Delphoxi


	6. The Welcome Party

Buongiorno from Roma! Italy's so amazing omg but anyways, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed this story. Your support is greatly appreciated! Here's the next instalment of _Storm Clouds_! c:

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

Tsuna gawked as he recognized pretty much everyone milling about in the restaurant. Gokudera had dropped by his house to pick him up, telling him that Reborn had asked for the both of them to be present at Takezushi. Tsuna hadn't anticipated for the Arcobaleno to throw a party for a reason that he had yet to discover. But knowing Reborn, the Vongola Don had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen.

Said man was serenely sipping at a cappuccino that did not fit with the traditional Japanese layout of the restaurant. He looked askance at his student with a reproving glare. "And here, I had thought you'd become more smarter in comprehending situations," he set the cup down on the saucer he held in his other hand with a shake of his head.

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

Ignoring Tsuna's indignant exclamation, the self-proclaimed tutor continued to talk. "As the tenth boss of the Vongola family, you're required to make good connections with certain factions for the benefit of the family. Currently, the Varia only answer the call of the ninth, and refuse to acknowledge you as their boss," at the mention of this, Reborn shot his student another reproachful glare from underneath the brim of his fedora, "We must take this opportunity to get to know them,"

"Why are you always scheming behind my back!?"

"Because if I openly schemed in front of you, nothing would ever get done."

"But they hate us!" Gokudera insisted, clearly displeased with the current predicament. He hadn't gotten rid of the grudge he held against the Varia for their adversity that had stemmed during the Rings Conflict. "There's definitely no reason for us to throw a party for them!"

"So says the half-breed peasant who hates everyone but the Vongola peasant," a mocking voice commented from behind them.

A silver eyebrow twitched in irritation as the Italian clenched his fist, and Tsuna rested a hand on his right-hand man's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. Reborn's face lit up with a half smile as he raised his espresso cup. "Ciaossu,"

"VOOIII!"

A tiny child with a cloud of black hair looked up from his messy plate. His hands held a pair of chopsticks at an awkward angle, and pieces of rice clung onto his face. "Huh?" Lambo stared at entrance, which was blocked by Tsuna and Gokudera, with a clueless expression before returning to devouring his food.

Another child, a girl with a wide forehead and braided dark hair, sat across the table with a worried look on her face. "No Lambo! You can't start eating when the others haven't!" her Japanese was slow, and paced, as if she had some difficulty speaking it.

Yamamoto popped up from behind the sushi bar where his father usually worked. A delighted grin crossed his face when he heard the loud roar that left the rest of the restaurant's occupants with ringing ears. "Squalo!"

The Varia had arrived. A smirking Belphegor dominated the front lines accompanied by a sullen Mammon, with an enthusiastic Lussuria waving his arms around in excitement while telling the two sour-faced men - Squalo and Leviathan - behind him to lighten up.

"Eh…hi?" Tsuna laughed nervously as he greeted the squad with reluctance.

"Not a bad way to welcome us to Japan, Vongola!" Lussuria gushed as he surveyed the restaurant.

"I'm assuming that the bill will not go to the Varia?" Mammon asked as he sniffed in contempt, "Because if it does, I'm not parting with a single cent that belongs to me,"

"Sushi. Nice," Belphegor commented with a cryptic snicker as he broke away from the group to sit at the bar. "Sushi's best in Japan, after all,"

"I still prefer Italy, though," a feminine voice commented with a sigh. Belphegor looked up with his signature grin, seeing the dark-haired Varia mascot standing next to him. "When can we go home?"

"What are you saying? Aren't you Japanese?"

"Half, Bel. Half. And I've lived in Europe my entire life."

Tsuna and Gokudera gawked at Riko's sudden appearance. Neither had noticed her entering the restaurant. She slid into the stool next to the prince, a saccharine grin on her face as she rested her chin on top of her clasped hands. "Hey there, Takeshi," she swept an appreciative gaze over the dark-haired boy, "I'm liking the uniform a _lot_,"

The sword-wielding guardian had on a traditional Japanese chef's uniform, which had been left open at the chest. His rain necklace gleamed proudly against the bare, hardened ridges of his muscular chest, and Yamamoto chuckled as he tightened the sash around his waist. "It's a special night, so dad said I had to wear the proper uniform," he lifted a finger to point at the headband that had been twisted into a rope tied around his head, "Not too old-school, is it?"

"It's _just_ the perfect amount of old-school, don't you think, Bel?"

"Don't ask me to look at other men, Riko. I don't care for them very much."

Yamamoto smiled as he hopped over the counter in one fluid motion. "Come on in!" he beckoned the rest of the assassination squad to join Tsuna's family.

Squalo scowled as he stomped further inside the restaurant. "VOI! Stop wasting my fucking time and let's get this over and done with!"

Gokudera growled menacingly, itching to grab the sticks of dynamite in his pockets. His hands were being restrained by Yamamoto, who was good-naturedly smiling at his fellow swordsman. "Let go, you baseball idiot!" the argent-haired boy snapped, tugging against the athlete's strong grip.

"G-Gokudera!" Tsuna wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it. Why, oh why, was Reborn so cunning!? This was a disaster_ definitely_ well underway.

"I think it's an _extremely_ good time to start the festivities!" an boy who looked to be a few years older than Tsuna suddenly burst into the restaurant from the front entrance. There were strips of bandaids that looked relatively new, plastered on various parts of his face, but no one seemed to be too alarmed at the sight of them, for it was just another normal day for the Vongola's Sun Guardian - Sasagawa Ryohei. A pair of teenage girls, and an older woman wearing a pair of orange goggles strolled inside after him, chatting amongst themselves. It seemed that Reborn hadn't forgotten to invite the girls, after all. Haru and Kyoko looked up from their conversation and smiled at Tsuna before taking a seat at the table with Lambo and I-Pin.

'_Not Haru and Kyoko too!' _Tsuna was horrified to see that the two girls were present at yet another mafia event. He threw a desperate look in the hitman's direction, but Reborn ignored it and nodded at the newcomers, completely dismissing Bianchi, who was lovingly rubbing her head against his chest with one-sided affection.

"Thanks for bringing them, Ryohei. Now we can start." Reborn said.

"Just hurry the fuck up!" Squalo growled, his left arm trembling and itching to move around. Tsuna eyed the man's prosthetic hand, highly aware of the fact that an extremely lethal blade was strapped onto it, and could be brought out at any time. Nervous sweat started to dampen the back of his shirt.

Lussuria shook his head lamentably. "Squ-chan, you have to be more polite! You were invited as a guest, remember?"

The swordsman glared at the boxer as he was pulled along to the table where the remaining members of Tsuna's family sat at. "Fuck that! That idiot boss didn't even bother showing up, so why should we!?"

"I came in the boss's place," Leviathan announced as he followed suit.

Riko made a face as Belphegor surveyed the sushi lined up on a wooden block in front of them, which made the prince snicker as he picked up a pair of chopsticks. "Why the ugly face, Riko?"

Riko merely returned the question with a pointed look. "Hardcore boss-worshippers freak me out," she informed him as she picked off a slice of raw salmon off the rice and popped it inside her mouth, "Levi just gives me the creeps."

"Tch," an irritated look was on the blonde's face as he picked up the leftover rice with his chopsticks. "Don't be so extravagant, circus peasant," he flung the rice at the girl, who blocked the projectile with an empty plate.

"Who's being extravagant, wasteful prince?"

"The both of you obviously don't know how to appreciate free food," the Mist Arcobaleno stated dryly as a look of horror registered itself onto Tsuna's face at the sight of Riko and Belphegor shamelessly playing around with the food.

"H-Hey!" Tsuna was at a loss, having no idea on how to control the rowdy Varia bunch.

Gokudera, clearly displeased, clenched his fists menacingly while glaring daggers at the pair. "Listen to the tenth, you disrespectful freaks!"

"Bel-chan! Ri-chan!" Lussuria strode up to the two teenagers, grabbing both by the collars of their jackets, "Don't play with your food! What would daddy say if he heard about it?"

Allowing himself to be dragged away, as the difference between their brute strengths was evident, Belphegor merely snickered while grabbing a disgruntled Mammon along with him. "Boss would definitely say-,"

"-he doesn't give a damn for what we worthless trash do," Riko finished as she obediently permitted the flamboyant man to lug her towards the table where a stoic Leviathan and a glowering Squalo sat. A weary Tsuna joined them reluctantly, driven by a threatening Reborn, at the table with both Gokudera and Yamamoto.

"Now, now! That's no way to be talking about your own father!" Lussuria reprimanded as he seated the two teenagers of the squad on the empty chairs beside Squalo.

Tsuna laughed awkwardly as he ran a nervous hand through his spiky hair. Gokudera scowled, arms folded across his chest as he sat beside Tsuna. The silver-haired Italian grumbled under his breath before directing his jade eyes towards the girl seated beside Belphegor. "You!"

Riko looked up from inspecting the sleeves of her sweater. "_Tè per me, per favore,_"

Gokudera's eyebrow twitched in irritation at the girl's flippant words. "_Io non sono tuo servo!_" he spat back in Italian.

"Oh, I assumed you were. You _ooze_ servitude."

"Bitch-!"

Before another fight could break out, a loud clinking of glass attracted everyone's attention. Reborn stood at the head of the table, and placed the cappuccino cup back on its saucer and onto the table. "On behalf of Tsuna, the Vongola Decimo, I officially welcome the Varia squad to Japan."

There was a drizzle of applause as some of the more enthusiastic party guests clapped at the man's introductory words. "Now, to kick off! It's never a Vongola party without a Vongola twist!"

The colour drained out of Tsuna's face upon hearing his mentor's words. This was it. What he had been afraid of. Yet another one of Reborn's twisted party games that usually caused more destruction than fun. "Not another one!" he yelped involuntarily, unable to keep the words in his head.

Reborn set his mouth in a tight, almost vindictive, smirk. "Now, if you raise your left pinkies-," he raised his own, "-you'll find that there's a string attached to it."

Everyone stared at their own hands, and belatedly realised that the Arcobaleno was right — it was barely visible, but there was indeed a string attached to their pinkies. How had he gotten them there without anyone knowing? Even Squalo had one - though it was tied to his right hand instead.

"How cute!" Kyoko smiled as she looked at her own string, and Tsuna's face warmed when she caught his eye and directed yet another smile at him. For a split second, he was no longer mad at Reborn.

"How romantic!" Haru gushed dreamily, a pink coloured her cheeks as she raised her hand, "Is this a compatibility game?"

Reborn coughed into his hand. "Of some sorts. The aim of the game is to pair up the with person on the other end of your string, and present a presentation of sorts. I'll be ranking each pair performance with points, and the one with the highest number of points will win and get a specially autographed poster of me,"

With a grand flourish, he unfurled a massive poster of himself, his gangly body elegantly draped across a plush, velvet chair. His head was cocked lazily in an angle as he raised a shotgun in one hand. His name was autographed in a fancy script at the bottom of the glossy poster with a silver marker. A satisfied smirk found its way to the Arcobaleno's face. "It's not a bad one, if I say so myself."

"No one wants a poster of you!" Tsuna exclaimed at Reborn's shameless self-promotion, to which the assassin responded with another smug smile.

"I'm very famous in Italy," he said this as if it were common knowledge.

"Think we're paired up together, Takeshi?" Riko winked flirtatiously at the swordsman.

"Wouldn't that be nice?" he said smilingly.

The mascot tugged tentatively at the string, and yelped when the other end of the string was yanked violently, making her lose her balance and fall forwards.

"Fuck!" she cursed loudly as she sat up, and Bel snickered beside her.

"Looks like you aren't with the sword peasant, eh Riko?"

"Shut the fuck up, Bel," Riko snapped, before jerking the string again. The person on the other end responded with another mighty pull, and before she knew it, she was being pulled towards a certain direction as the other end was being reeled in at an incredibly fast pace.

_SMACK!_

"Jesus Christ!" she smacked right into the sliding door of the restaurant. Confusion clouded her as she belatedly realised that the string was wedged between the small crack of the closed door and the doorframe. Was her partner outside?

For some reason, an ominous sense of dread crept down her spine.

The door slid open.

Her goggles were almost immediately yanked down.

Her eyes met a pair of angry, blue-grey eyes. She knew those eyes.

_Shit._

A malicious smile replaced the unamused frown from seconds earlier. "Yang Riko."

"Kyoya."

"What a surprise to see you here, Hibari! You two know each other?"

The sudden interruption from the baseball ace made the unwilling partners look away from each other. Yamamoto stood there with a grin, accompanied by a very unhappy Gokudera. They had both been paired up, and it was clear that the arsonist was less than pleased with the match up.

"Yang Riko is my underling," Hibari said coldly, "And you're crowding," he looked behind Riko and at the massive group gathered around a long table, and his eyes narrowed into disapproving slits, "You're all crowding."

Tsuna, who had been unfortunately paired up with Belphegor instead of Kyoko like he had hoped, blanched at the sight of the irritable cloud guardian standing face to face with Riko. Turning desperately towards Reborn, who had his arms folded across his chest, he waved at his mentor urgently. "Reborn! Hibari's here! Why didn't you say anything about that!?"

"It's a family event, Useless Tsuna. Of course Hibari's going to be here. I _may_ have mentioned that I had invited Mukuro and his crew as well, but I guess I forgot to include the part where they declined the invitation like they always do," Reborn then added, "Why don't you start preparing your act with Belphegor?"

The blonde prince perked up at the Arcobaleno's suggestion. Holding up a knife, he said, "Why, you're absolutely right. I do need to do some target practice."

"Heeh!"

On the other end of the room, Riko had jutted her bottom lip out defiantly as she glared at the prefect. "You know what? I'm just going to cut this string. I refuse to be your bitch," she started marching towards the kitchen, pulling an impassive Hibari along with her.

Facially impassive, anyway. The aura radiating off the cloud guardian was verging on being suffocatingly murderous, but this was lost on the livid girl as she seemed hellbent on cutting the literal tie between her and Hibari.

Reborn cleared his throat, which stopped the mascot in her tracks. "What?" her tone was harsh and unforgiving as she glared at the manipulative hitman.

"You can't cut those strings," came the confession. His glee was barely masked as he continued, "I'm the only one who can remove them, and I'll remove them when I've seen your performance."

Revelation hit the girl like a thunderbolt. "You can't be fucking serious."

"Well, yes. I am."

"No_ fucking_ way."

"I hate crowds, herbivore. You're testing my patience."

Shit. Shitshitshit.

A corner of Hibari's mouth lifted. He held up a tonfa. "I'm going to bite you to death."

She was in for a very _very _long night.

* * *

Scheming Reborn is my favourite, don't you agree? I can just see him secretly pairing up everyone he ships x)

_Tè per me, per favore - tea for me please_

___Io non sono tuo servo - I am not your servant_

Review if you have any questions, or if you just thought it was good/great! I like hearing from you guys c:

Delphoxi


	7. The Altered Ecosystem

Guten tag! Currently midnight in Switzerland, and I just got some time to myself to write whilst on the bus from Venice to here. I want to thank everyone who reviewed/followed/favourite this story! You're all fab!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

Stormy green eyes gleamed dangerously as they followed Squalo's movements. A sleeved hand held up a hanger, from which a white dress shirt with a navy-coloured blazer draped over and a cream skirt dangled.

"What the fuck is this?" Riko attempted to keep her tone light and saccharine, despite the fact that everyone could clearly tell and evaluate the level of her irritation by the way the nerve on her temple was pulsing, and how the corner of her mouth was twitching.

Lussuria sighed in a melancholy manner as he watched from a velvet armchair in the corner, resting a gloved hand against his cheek. "She gets to be just like her father with each passing day, doesn't she?" he asked Leviathan, who was standing stiffly beside him as they watched the youngest member of their squad confront their captain.

Levi blinked, narrowing his eyes to find physical similarities that the girl had with their vindictive boss. "Does she really resemble the boss that much?"

Belphegor snickered as he crouched on a chair nearby. He reached up to adjust the crooked crown resting on his golden locks as he grinned gleefully. "Temper-wise, yes. That Riko certainly knows how to throw a tantrum."

Squalo scoffed at the sight of the belligerent girl whom he towered a good foot over. He analyzed the scowl on her face, and then the clothes she held in her hand. "What the fuck does that have to do with me?! You think I'm a guy with a fucking cosplay fetish?!"

Riko brandished the uniform again, eyes flashing with an accusatory glare. "Why do I go into my room, only to find this lying on top of my fucking bed?"

"Do I look like I have a fucking clue?!"

"As a matter of fact, you do!"

"Ask that fucking boss then! He sure knows more about this fucking thing than I do!"

"What, he wants me to go to fucking school?!"

"Well, what does it fucking look like!?"

An eldritch snicker from Belphegor. "Ka-_ching_."

Disbelief washed away the annoyance on her face. Riko's eyes widened dramatically as she fell to her knees in an exaggerated slow motion. Was this what that damn boss had meant by wanting a champion? A bloody study bug that went to school and beat all the Vongola member's asses by getting top marks in class?!

Throwing the uniform aside, she clasped her hands together. "PLEASE DON'T LET ME GO TO SCHOOL!"

Ultimate. Groveling.

A horribly repulsed expression made its way to the swordsman's face as he watched the girl whine, while the others snickered quietly to themselves as they watched the scintillating scene unfolding in front of them. Mammon held up a camcorder, his money-laundering instincts coming into play as he pressed the button, Riko's form coming into focus on the display screen.

Belphegor looked up, peering over the Mist Arcobaleno's shoulder. "Recording it, Mammon?"

"It's not often Riko does this. I'll be able to sell it well. A fair number of the underlings happen to have a special interest in Riko's lowest moments," A malevolent chuckle left the illusionist's lips as he pressed another button, zooming into Riko's face as it captured the distraught expression on her face.

"VOI! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?"

"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M DOING!? I'M BEGGING, YOU FUCK!"

"IF YOU WANNA FUCKING BEG, GO TO THE DAMN BOSS!"

xxxx

"And before we begin homeroom, I want to introduce a new classmate," a middle-aged man announced as he shut the attendance book, standing up from his seat. "Will you please enter?"

A honey-brown head looked up from his table, an ominous feeling clouding his senses. Tsuna drummed the tabletop with his fingers nervously. The party the night before had been nothing short of disastrous, despite the fact that one member that really mattered, had been absent - Xanxus hadn't shown up, so that was good.

Mostly. The party had ended in a massive food fight between the Varia and his family, which had started when Riko had unceremoniously flung rice balls in Gokudera's direction when he had rudely jeered at Lussuria and Ryohei's rendition of Hollaback Girls ("It's a classic song, okay!" had been her accompanying yell), and instead it had sailed out of an open window and landed on Hibari's head, as he had been standing a few feet away from the storm guardian had been, but instead of being in the building, he had been outside due to 'excessive crowding'.

The prefect had promptly exploded, and started another hunt for the girl, who had immediately ran for the hills as he proclaimed his intentions to bite her to death three times over. Gokudera, who was aware that Riko had been targeting him, had thrown another rice ball back in her direction, but because of her speedy exit, it had landed on Bel instead. And so, the legendary food fight, stuff of recorded legends, had occurred.

"Ah…" and Tsuna had been, as usual, the unfortunate soul who had been caught in the crosshairs of the fight, and ended up being the sole person on cleaning duty and had been slapped with the astronomical bill for the amount of food that had been consumed and wasted throughout the entire night.

Why was his life so cruel!?

"Tenth! Are you alright?" his weak moan attracted the bomber's attention. Gokudera rose from his seat, and like a mother hen, rushed over to Tsuna's spot, crouching down by his side with a worried expression on his face. "Are you hurting anywhere?"

"_My head…" _

A rambunctious bunch of assassins was definitely on top of the list for the cause of Tsuna's headache. "_Why did they have to come here!?'_"

"Gokudera! Go back to your seat immediately!" the teacher reprimanded, "It's rude to behave like this in front of the new student!"

Gokudera shot a glare towards the teacher, who immediately froze at the Italian's hostile response. Coughing into his hand, he turned to the door, dismissing Gokudera's behaviour. After all, the boy was as scary as delinquents came, even if he wasn't like the head prefect of the Disciplinary Committee. "As I was saying, Yang Riko, although she originates from Japanese and Chinese origins, she has been living in Italy for quite some time now."

A scowling girl stepped inside, her arms folded across her chest, from which long white sleeves dangled. Apart from that and the white Ugg boots didn't quite cover up the bandage that was wrapped around her left leg, Tsuna could clearly see that the dark-haired girl, despite her change in appearance, was definitely Yang Riko.

Tsuna dropped his head onto the table, relentlessly banging it. "I knew it!"

xxxx

The classroom's atmosphere was eerily silent for the lunch hour. It wasn't to be unexpected though, what with the murderous aura emitting from a corner of the classroom. Tsuna, crowded by his usual group of friends, looked over to the Corner of Doom.

Occupied by none other than Yang Riko, the official mascot of Varia.

Presently, the revealed to be Chinese-Japanese girl was sulking moodily in her seat, evidently displeased by her current situation. Tsuna gave a yelp when he realized that her hands, concealed by the custom-elongated sleeves of the crisp dress shirt worn by the students of Namimori High, were holding a pair of scissors and a paper doll that had disturbing resemblance to Xanxus.

_Snip. Snip snip snip. _

The Vongola heir made a strangled squeak at the sight of a decapitated head floating onto the top of the desk.

"Curse you to fucking hell and beyond, stupid boss…" a half-crazed chuckle erupted from her lips, and her green eyes had a psychotic twinkle in them as she continued her assault on the paper dolls.

_Definitely_ Xanxus.

The spectators laughed nervously at the vengeful aura emitting from the girl. Nearly everyone who usually sat in the classroom for lunch break had immediately left the classroom in favour of escaping the eldritch atmosphere that Riko had brought in with her. Even Gokudera, who had vehemently objected to the girl's entry into the school was rendered incapable of approaching the danger zone set up around the dark-haired girl's corner for fear of the unmentionable happening to him.

"_'Oh! Because Riko's still at that stage where she's got the most potential to learn! And besides, she's supposed to be going to school anyway!' _Screw it, Lussuria. What about Bel? He's eighteen! Only two goddamn years older than me! I don't want to go to this crappy school, and yet that son of a bitch boss merely snorts and looks away! I'm so going to get back at him for this!"

_Stab. Stab stab stab. _

Tsuna whimpered as Riko started stabbing the shredded remains of the Xanxus paper doll with the pointed ends of the scissors.

"So she does have a scary side too!" Yamamoto commented with a grin as he stood beside Tsuna. He didn't seem the least bit fazed by the girl's manic actions, which made Tsuna question whether or not his own friend's sanity.

"As scary as a Chihuahua, maybe," Gokudera scoffed, casting a dirty look in Riko's direction.

There was a loud bang, and all three boys looked up to see that the classroom's door had been opened forcefully. Standing there in his demonic glory was the president of the disciplinary committee, Hibari Kyoya.

"H-Hibari!" Tsuna squeaked in fear at the sight of the school's most powerful student. Said person narrowed his steely eyes, reaching into his jacket to pull out his trusty pair of tonfas, whipping them out for everyone present to see.

"I sense a disturbance in this classroom," his voice was deathly cold, as his eyes landed on Tsuna, who withered under his piercing gaze, "Who dares to disturb the peace in Namimori High? I'll bite them to death."

"N-Not me!" Tsuna denied vehemently, seemingly suspicious in Hibari's eyes. He stepped forward, leaning close to Tsuna until there was only a sliver of distance between their faces.

"You seem to be very suspicious to me, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Are you attempting to deceive me? If you are, I'll bite you to death."

"N-No! That's not it!"

"Hey! Stop threatening the tenth, you bastard!"

"Now, now! No fighting you guys!"

The sounds of the scissors snipping away only got louder, which irked Hibari even more. He drew away from Tsuna, who in turn sighed in relief at barely escaping from being beaten half to death by his cloud guardian.

Hibari's eagle-visioned eyes scanned the classroom diligently, and located his target. The aura radiating from the herbivore seated at the corner desk was intense, but not terrifying enough to bring out the bloodlust in him. He held no particular regard for this gloomy-looking herbivore, but there were two things that made him walk up to her.

One, overally improper uniform. Two, for disrupting Hibari Kyoya's nap.

The reason why Hibari even bothered to stop by in the first place was because he had been disturbed during his nap on the school's rooftop. A gaggle of girls had been having their lunch below the building, voices so loud they floated up to the roof, which disrupted his sleep. He had originally intended to bite all of them to death, but when one of them had squealed about some terrifying person in their classroom, which made them leave their usual lunch place and relocate to that particular place, Hibari had left the biting to another day in search of the person who had not only impede the peace in Namimori High, but also because that person had indirectly caused a disturbance in Hibari's nap.

Lesson to be learned: _Never_ disturb Hibari Kyoya's nap times.

"You are the one impeding the peace in Namimori High, aren't you, herbivore?" Hibari's tone was clipped and deadly; hands itching to smack the herbivore with his weapons.

No response. The herbivore merely continued cutting sheets of cut-out paper into tiny pieces.

Eye twitch. He brandished one tonfa, only stopping in his attack when it was an inch from the herbivore's face. "Look at me, herbivore."

"Fuck off."

Another eye twitch. This herbivore was definitely not normal. She had dared to talk back to him, something which Hibari did not tolerate. "For inappropriate uniform and two counts of misconduct, I will now personally bite you to death."

Without hesitating, Hibari then lunged at her with his tonfas.

Tsuna shrieked hysterically. "Hibari! No-!"

Nothing happened. No cries of help, no 'ouch's, no swearing. Nothing.

Everyone traded confused looks, while the expression of Hibari's face remained unreadable. He had stopped his attack. Tsuna cautiously peered over to see Riko still stationary in her seat, still violently cutting off the heads of the Xanxus paper dolls. Hibari was rooted to the spot, which made the chocolate-haired teenager nervous.

"Say herbivore…"

"Buzz off. I'm busy. Make a fucking appointment or something."

The grip on his tonfas tightened considerably. "I'm going to bite you to death."

Hibari moved his head by an inch to look at the girl. Indeed, upon a closer inspection, the annoyingly long sleeves of the uniform, the goggles that were in stark defiance of school rules, and the shameless defiance… they added up to one particular herbivore that Hibari had already disciplined before.

"Yang Riko."

The scissors stopped moving. Suspicious green eyes looked up before fear clouded them. "Oh, shit. Shit shit shit," Riko inched her chair a fair distance away from her desk, a loud screech emitting as the legs scraped across the tiled surface noisily, "It's Kyoya! The leg-fracturing sunnuvabitch!"

Eye twitch. "That's Hibari to you, herbivore."

Riko wasn't spooked by many things, but if she were to choose one particular person as the scariest, Hibari Kyoya would be one of them. Even more so than a raging Xanxus. Granted that she managed to leave mostly unscathed the night before save for the fractured leg from when he had managed to slam that godforsaken tonfa into her shinbone. That had not needed much attention, but she'd immediately entered his name onto the top of the list of 'People to Avoid', which was entirely made up of… only Hibari.

Noticing the change in attitude from Riko, Hibari could only surmise the fact that Riko had judged him as someone to be feared, which made a sadistic smirk appear on his face. "Oh? Why the sudden change in attitude, herbivore?"

Riko chuckled uneasily, grabbing her schoolbag discreetly. "Um. I just remembered that I have a really important thing to do right now, so I can't entertain you at the moment…"

She stuck a foot out. Hibari missed this as he continued to pierce his steely gaze into Riko's eyes, striking icy fear deep within her heart. "Hm? And what would that be?"

"Run like hell!"

The Varia mascot pulled herself off the seat and immediately started running down the hallway - a feat that was thought to be impossible for her injured leg - as far as she could possibly get away from Hibari. Tsuna yelped in terror as he heard sounds of laughter from Hibari's direction.

"H-He's laughing!"

Ignoring the Vongola Decimo, Hibari stepped through the door conveniently left open by the girl who had hightailed herself out of the room. A smug smile stayed on his face as he watched her form disappear around a corner. A new animal had joined the ecosystem, and things were about to get interesting.

* * *

School days for the gang! To address some questions I couldn't answer due to disabled PM features, Poooooh wanted to know if Riko had any fighting capabilities, and if I would ever showcase them. The short answer is yes, she does and yes, I have planned some chapters to do just that! Obviously she wouldn't be in Varia unless she were at least an expert in something they need, but don't worry, it won't be some stupid Mary Sue shit like infinite fighting styles, etc... I promise it will definitely be something that suits someone like Riko! c:

Please do let me know how you liked this chapter, or if you have any questions! Auf Weidersehen for now!

Delphoxi


	8. The Scarlet Armband

Started from Rome and finally made it to London. It has been a hell of a few weeks! Going home in five days, so hopefully I'll be back to regular updates. In the meantime, although shorter than usual, do enjoy this latest chapter of _Storm Clouds_!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

"Have a great day at school, Ri-chan!"

"Go fuck yourself, Lussuria."

The Varia Sun Guardian merely responded to Riko's rude snap with a joyful wave from inside the Bentley he was in, and the door slammed shut as he drew back and the black vehicle promptly drove off.

It was her second day at Namimori High, and despite the many locks she'd installed on her bedroom door the night before, the self-proclaimed mother hen of the assassination squad had managed to break the door down to drag the recalcitrant teenager out of bed and into the shower and subsequently her uniform. He had instructed his entire squad of underlings to keep an eye on the mascot as she grumpily, against her wishes, got ready for school, which meant that she had been escorted the entire way from the mansion to the gates of the school.

But he wasn't here anymore, so…

Riko smirked. Lussuria had completely let his guard down once they had reached the school grounds, just as she had hoped! Gripping the straps of her backpack, she turned on her heel, intent on going anywhere else that had a name that didn't start with 'Namimori' and ended with 'High'.

"Cutting school is prohibited," a familiar voice tinged with sadistic amusement startled the juvenile assassin, stopping her in her tracks.

No _fucking_ way.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now!?" she groaned as she turned around to meet a maliciously smiling Hibari Kyoya, flanked by an intimidating group of high school boys with creepily identical pompadours, who all had the same scarlet band that Hibari had, pinned to their sleeves. Was there anywhere in Namimori that didn't magically summon the cruel brunette to where the Varia mascot was at any given time!?

The massive group of boys that stood behind the very object of her fears had surprised the assassin — she had assumed that from the multiple warnings of 'Do not crowd in front of me', that the head prefect would've long ago smashed his weapons into each and every one of the oddly-hairstyled students for gathering in a massive group.

"Herbivore," a finger shot out, slipping over the bridge between the lenses of her goggles, and yanked them down. Why the fuck was he always doing that!?

Riko hissed. "Hey, you're crowding. Shouldn't you be biting yourself to death?"

Her question made the boy lift an eyebrow. "Hm?" as soon as he turned around, the massive group had dispersed, and scattering evenly in smaller groups of twos and threes all over the school courtyard. Each prefect wore a nervous expressions on their faces as they avoided their leader's piercing gaze. Only one had remained beside the cloud guardian, though he was standing a few feet away from the vindictive teenager. A senbon protruded from between his lips as he nervously averted his eyes to the ground.

Riko slapped her hand to her forehead. She had just ruined a perfect opportunity to run away. What else was new?

Hibari dismissed the scene and turned back to the girl. His gaze rested on her as he quietly regarded her. Riko made no moves as she stood rooted to the spot — she was afraid if she moved even a facial muscle, the prefect would have a tonfa in her face faster than she could dodge.

"Hmph," the quiet scoff matched the superior expression Hibari wore. He reached a hand into the pocket in his trousers, and pulled out a scarlet band. He flung it at the girl's face, and turned around, walking back into the school grounds. The other prefects immediately lined up to form a path for the head to walk down, with the one that seemed to be Hibari's right-hand man of sorts trailing after him from a supposedly safe distance.

Riko scowled at Hibari's back, and picked up the band he had unceremoniously thrown at her. Smoothening it between her fingers, two golden characters had been stitched across the crimson background, and edged it with a border. Despite not being able to read it, she knew what this was — it was exactly the same one that Hibari and his lackeys wore.

"The fuck?"

xxxx

Students stared at the intimidating third-year that walked down the corridor of the first year section of the building. His pompadour bobbed slightly as he looked up at the plates that were screwed into the walls beside the doors.

1-A…

1-B…

1-C!

He stopped in front of the door, and pulled it open. His eyes landed on the corner where a shape lay unmoving over a desk; that was her, alright. She fitted Hibari's description to the t, but it hadn't been necessary, since he had seen her this morning. Overly long shirt sleeves, clunky white boots, and goggles that seemed permanently glued onto her face.

"Yang Riko?"

The shape moved slowly as she sat up. A disgruntled girl glared up at him, and recognition flashed in her forest-green eyes. "John Revolta!"

"It's Kusakabe-senpai to you," Kusakabe said coldly, narrowing his eyes at the twisted nickname.

"Ever watched Grease, Revolta?"

"I'm familiar. Hibari wants to see you."

"Tell Kyoya he can suck my dick- Hm?"

Her eyes widened as she felt herself being yanked off the chair she was in, her waist in a painfully strong grip that prevented her from escaping. Kusakabe flung the assassin over one broad shoulder, clamping an arm over her back. He pulled his head away from the frantic kicks of the girl, avoiding being hit by her shoes. "Hey! What the fuck are you doing!? Put me down!"

xxxx

Hibari looked up as Kusakabe entered the room, the struggling girl slung over one shoulder as he respectfully bowed his head. "She wasn't cooperating," he explained his manhandling as he set the belligerent girl down.

Riko immediately lunged for the door, but was blocked by Kusakabe, who leered down at her menacingly with his arms folded across his chest.

"You haven't put it on." came the indifferent observation.

The Chinese-Japanese turned her glare towards the impassive cloud guardian. "Put what on?"

"The badge," he stood up, and started walking towards her. Riko slowly moved back, until her back touched the wall. Hibari stopped, leaning down until his nose was merely inches away from hers. "Put it on. Or do you not know how to?"

"Why the fuck should I?"

"Because I said so."

"Well, good luck making me do it, because I trashed it!"

Slate eyes narrowed momentarily, before Hibari's expression returned to being impassive. "No matter," he said, "It's just a badge after all."

His right hand reached down to the sleeve of the coat that hung on his shoulders, unpinning the band from it. The other hand shot out to pull Riko's left hand towards him, and he threaded the band through the white shirt sleeve, and fastened the safety pin onto the sleeve.

Kusakabe stared. The senbon floated onto the carpeted floor as he watched the head prefect with his mouth slightly parted in shock. He had definitely not expected this.

Pulling back, the head prefect seemed satisfied with the crimson armband that he had placed on the girl. There. Now she was officially his underling.

Riko made a move to yank the band off her shirt, but a paralyzing glare from Hibari stopped her in her tracks. A somewhat nervous glare was directed at him, her eyes flashing darkly with irritation and resentment. "Why the fuck should I be your lackey?" her tone was acidic.

"Because I said so," came the simple reply, "You crossed me, so this is the retribution. You should consider yourself lucky that this is as far as it goes."

"Isn't** this** retribution enough!?" she gestured towards the bandage around her shin, "You fractured my shinbone!"

"I didn't bite you to death, did I?"

As Hibari's trusted righthand watched the exchange unfold before him, he could not help the multitudes of questions springing up in his mind as he did so. When on earth had Hibari become so wordy? He was a man of very few words, and would much rather slam his tonfas into defiant underlings rather than speak to them. Speaking of underlings, there had never been a case where he'd openly forced anyone into becoming one - everyone that donned the scarlet armband had voluntarily pledged their loyalty to the strongest juvenile in their school, and the title and committee had even followed the infamous cloud guardian from Namimori Middle to Namimori High. It was a display of his strength, and with the level of fear and respect he commanded with ease, one measly girl should have been forgotten like dust beneath his immaculately polished shoes.

But that was not the case, was it?

Kusakabe's eyes slid from Hibari towards the irate girl yelling abuse at the impassive prefect. She was somewhat odd, he could tell, but that was never enough to attract the attention of Hibari Kyoya. They seemed to know each other, from the way she approached him with a familiarity that was returned by the cloud guardian. He had even given her his own armband, which he had worn for so many years, starting from the first day he had established the disciplinary committee. The badge he had worn with quiet pride, given up like it wasn't of great importance to him.

Just what about the girl was special enough to attract the attention of the Demon of Namimori?

* * *

Please do let me know how you enjoyed this! Reviews are greatly appreciated, and if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them! c:

Delphoxi


	9. The Three-Storey Fall

I must say, jetlag is not fun at all. The past week has been exhausting despite the fact that all I've done is sleep. As always, thank you for all the reviews/favourites/follows! Your support is greatly appreciated. c:

(Also, a moment of appreciation for everyone who got my Grease reference. Y'all rock.)

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

"Where-,"

An ebony-haired figure clad in a wrinkled, white button-down shirt and an ivory skirt stopped all movements. One foot was resting on the ledge of an open window, and the other stayed rooted to the tiled floor. The brunette turned around; green eyes behind a pair of tinted goggles had guilt and annoyance in them as she acknowledged the person who had spoken to her.

"-do you think you're going, herbivore?"

Riko made no move to step away from the open window. Her foot was still perched on the windowsill, and it seemed that her European upbringing was very evident in terms of her modesty — she barely seemed to notice that her skirt was hitched too far up her thigh.

Hibari Kyoya did not care.

However, Kusakabe Tetsuya did. "Yang! Would it kill you to be a little more decent?!" he hissed from where he stood beside Hibari, "This is an institution of learning!"

The assassin raised an eyebrow at the senior's chastisement, and her lips formed a humorous smirk that spelled trouble rather than fun. "Oh? And what's the problem here? Never seen a girl's underwear before, have you?"

"That is besides the poi-!"

"Kusakabe, shut up."

At the mention of his name, the pompadour-haired senior immediately clammed up, and stiffened beside the impassive head prefect. Hibari pulled his chilling gaze off his righthand man, and focused his attention on the green-eyed girl who was matching his withering look with an equally stormy glare.

Kusakabe swore he could hear the sparks flying from the tension.

"Cutting school is prohibited. You are a prefect now. Do you not see the example you're setting for the rest of the school, herbivore?"

Riko furrowed her brows at his words, and a corner of her eye twitched in annoyance. "First of all, _**this**_-," she roughly jerked her arm to brandish the crimson-hued band that Hibari himself had pinned on, "-stupid shit was not my idea. I never fucking said that I would be your lackey! Did the words come out of my fucking mouth? No!"

"I never said you had a choice, herbivore."

"Well-!"

"VOI!"

At the loud interruption that echoed down the corridor, a grimace crossed Riko's face as she drew back from the open window to look down the hallway. Kusakabe jumped at the shrill voice, while Hibari merely expressed annoyance at the fact that he had once again, been interrupted during what he liked to call a 'hunt'.

Heavy footsteps resounded along the lengthy hallway; both prefects and Riko could feel the vibrations caused by the weighted stomping beneath their feet. Well, in Riko's case it was just one foot. A panicked expression momentarily flashed across her face as she grabbed hold of the window frame again, and hoisted herself up onto the ledge.

Hibari's head quickly snapped back to pay attention to the fleeing teenager. "Did I give you permission to lea-?"

"RIKO!"

"Fuck."

The curse slipped out as a tall, silver-haired man came into view. Hibari only vaguely remembered him, but his charcoal raiment nudged some semblance of familiarity within his subconscious. He had definitely met this man before. He radiated an aura of power and terror, the latter of which was currently being directed at the recalcitrant teenager perched precariously on the ledge of the open window.

_"Sei in ritardo!"_ he growled, immediately addressing the Varia mascot, completely dismissing Hibari and Kusakabe.

_"Non è colpa mia!"_

There were, as it was common knowledge, many things Hibari Kyoya did not like. Foreign languages being spoken in his presence was one of them, with the reason being that Hibari liked feeling in control, and not understanding the situation around him was definitely_ not_ being in control.

"Speak Japanese."

His order went unheard, because his soft voice had failed to pierce through the escalating volume of the Varia captain's argument with his underling.

_"Se non è colpa tua , allora perché cazzo sei ancora qui!?"_

Riko scoffed. _"Chiedi a lui!"_ she jerked her head towards Hibari's direction, suddenly remembering that he was still very much present.

And then her blood ran cold.

Hibari, unused to being ignored as if he were a common herbivore, was quietly seething with fury. The corners of his mouth were slightly turned down. His steely eyes flashed maliciously; the majority of his attention focused with laser-like precision on the girl. Riko could practically feel the murderous intent crawling underneath her skin, and that was when she conveniently remembered Hibari did not like being ignored.

Because she was petrified by the chilling glare of the head prefect, she could not dodge the hit delivered by Hibari's tonfa. The wind was knocked out of the girl as the metal rod connected with her abdomen, slamming into her body. The next thing she knew, the wind was whistling in her ears as she fell from the third floor.

The third. Fucking. Floor.

xxxx

At exactly the same time when Riko was knocked out of the third floor window, Kusakabe muffled a very uncharacteristic squeak that threatened to squirm its way out of his mouth. Severely injuring recidivist students was a common practice that the school usually turned a blind eye to due to their fear of their disciplinary committee's head prefect, but actually killing one!?

An expression of hysteria registered itself on the prefect's face when he realised that both Hibari and the silver-haired man were merely looking out of the window with identical expressions of mild, clinical interest. The strange man had even nonchalantly smashed open a window so as to be able to put his head through to get a better look down the side of the building.

Why wasn't anyone panicking!?

He stiffly marched himself as quickly as he could without seeming openly panicked (because Hibari would beat him if he sensed weakness, obviously) towards the window next to the one Riko had been knocked out of. Pulling the latch open, he slid it aside, looking down and expecting to see a grotesquely contorted body lying in a scarlet pool.

He was wrong.

His mouth parted in shock.

xxxx

The time it took for Kusakabe to get over the initial shock of Hibari shoving her out of the window, and hasten himself to check for a corpse was, in reality, the span of approximately twenty seconds.

In the first three of those twenty seconds, Riko knew she was going to die.

On the fourth second, she gave a resigned sigh.

Come the fifth second, instincts that were second nature to her immediately kicked in.

She pulled her knees towards her chest, tucking her legs securely against her torso. An image of a ball flashed in her mind as she closed her eyes, and began counting.

_Eleven…_

_Twelve…_

_Thirteen…_

_Fourteen…_

Blinking her eyes open, she immediately extended her legs and in one fluid motion, and bent them at the knee as they made contact with the solid wall of the building. Arching her feet as well, the combination of readjusting her legs and feet absorbed most of the shock that would've otherwise caused the bones of her legs to fracture beyond repair.

In the next split second, she propelled herself towards a large tree, her hands grabbing a sturdy tree bough. She circled around it a few times, before releasing her grip. She tucked her body as it somersaulted through the air, before she landed in a crouch. Heaving a sigh of relief, she then stood up, straightened her back and raised her hands with a flourish.

"Ta-fucking-dah!"

Grinning up at the three faces standing by the open windows, Riko could see that only Kusakabe was, for lack of a better word to describe the priceless expression on his face, awestruck. (Or at least that's what she liked to pretend it was, anyway) Hibari, on the other hand, remained impassive to her display of acrobatic ability, but from where she stood, she failed to capture the slight quirk of the prefect's mouth, and the slightly arched eyebrow.

The herbivore was finally starting to become a new level of interesting.

Squalo, on the other hand, was entirely unimpressed. "Che," he snorted as he folded his arms across his chest haughtily, "Circus bitch."

Circus? Hibari looked askance at the Varia captain as his sharp ears caught Squalo's dark mutter. The Italian craned his head out of the window.

"VOI! YOU'D BETTER FUCKING STAY PUT UNTIL I GET THERE!"

With an irritated twitch of her eyebrows, Riko responded with a, "GEE, THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERN! IT'S SO FUCKING SWEET OF YOU!"

Furrowing his silver eyebrows, Squalo muttered several Italian phrases under his breath as he climbed out of the window. With a single shake of his left arm, a glistening blade of steel emerged from underneath his sleeve. Then, before Hibari could capture him for 'breaking the school rules for possession of weapons', Squalo jumped off the ledge, breaking his fall as his blade cut into the wall of the building as he slid down.

Riko stared at Squalo. Her lips pulled back into a sneer as the man walked towards her. "Couldn't use the fucking stairs, could you?"

"We're fucking leaving, bitch."

The acrobat yelped as Squalo grabbed the scruff of her neck, and roughly dragged her across the compound. Deciding it was better to not resist lest she wanted to be stabbed by the swordsman's lethal blade, Riko looked up to see Hibari observing her from where he stood on the third floor.

A thought suddenly crossed her mind, and she groaned.

Squalo looked down with a scowl. "What's your fucking problem?"

"It's Kyoya," Riko explained glumly, "He's going to 'investigate' me when I get back to that shitty school, and by investigate I mean torture me until he's satisfied with what he's discovered."

She was _not_ looking forward to it.

* * *

Many of you have been asking about the extent of Riko's abilities, and yes, while she is quite obviously weak in terms of physical strength, she does have skills that are worthy of being branded with the Varia Quality. Surviving a three-storey fall isn't the whole of it, so don't worry too much. c: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! (Frankly it was hard to write D:)

_**Translations**_

_Sei in ritardo! - You're late!_

___Non è colpa mia! - It's not my fault!_

_____Se non è colpa tua , allora perché cazzo sei ancora qui!? - If it's not your fault, then why the fuck are you still here?!_

_______Chiedi a lui! - Ask him!_

Reviews are always appreciated, and any questions will be welcomed!

Delphoxi


	10. The Rich & Young

Thank you for all the reviews/favourites/follows! It's really nice to know that there are people reading this, and like it as much as I love writing it. c:

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

She had managed to evade Hibari for two weeks now. It was a record, and Riko fully intended to keep beating the record with each passing day. After the incident where he had unceremoniously shoved her off the third floor, she was liking him less and less. There was even a blown-up A3-sized poster of the prefect tacked up in her closet door, with words of hatred written on post-it notes slapped around it, although she would not admit to actually tracking him down to actually take the picture in a surreptitious manner without him noticing.

"Hey bitch, you listening?"

Squalo's harsh voice tore her out of her reverie, and Riko blinked away from the window she had been staring out of, and directed her green-eyed gaze towards the Italian. "I've been listening for ages now, Kisame."

"Don't fucking call me that!" he growled as he flipped her off before slamming his hand down on the table between them, "Do you understand what you're supposed to do or not!?"

It was a generically beautiful Saturday morning, and while most teenagers were either out at club activities or sleeping past the ungodly hours of the weekend morning, Riko had been the recipient of a very rude awakening by Belphegor himself, saying that Squalo wanted to see her immediately for a mission briefing, while he threw knives at her and purposely missed vital areas.

Speaking of which, she would have to take revenge on the psychotic self-proclaimed royal.

"Am I doing this alone?"

"I fucking said that at the beginning, didn't I? I knew you weren't listening!"

"Calm yo tits, dude. You're saying this is a retrieval mission, and that's why I'm alone, _si?"_

"Did I fucking stutter?"

"And what am I supposed to be retrieving?"

Squalo jabbed a finger at a glossy picture of what seemed to be a silver chalice. "Were you not paying any attention to any fucking thing I said?!"

"Who wants the Goblet of Fire?" Riko wanted to know, as she picked up the picture and examined it. It was normal, compared to what she was usually sent to retrieve. The argent colour of the chalice was dull with age and possibly lack of polishing, and a dated design of European filigree snaked from the stem of the cup and wrapped around the base in an intricate pattern.

"The Basilica Family — that really old runty family? The Ninth wants to make peace with them, and apparently this shitty cup is a family heirloom that was stolen during a war by some Japanese warlord as a trophy of some kind," Squalo narrowed his eyes and yelled, "I fucking said all of this already! You're just making me repeat every fucking thing I said!"

"And you're doing a fantastic job, too," Mischief twinkled in Riko's eyes wickedly, "Shall I depart now, Kisame?"

"Directions and objectives are in the packet, and don't you fucking dare to mess this up."

"And what, put a black mark in my perfect record? I would never!"

xxxx

Because she was still unable to read Japanese characters despite having lived in Japan for a little over four months now, Squalo had thoughtfully gotten one of his subordinates to write GPS-like instructions for Riko. Taking 'a left turn at the next junction', Riko then stopped as the last line of instructions said 'you have now arrived at your destination'.

Looking up as she folded the paper and slipped it inside her pocket, Riko was met with a very impressive set of gates that had high concrete walls on either side of them. She looked at the nameplate on the side of the gate, but nothing registered in her head. After all, she was Japanese-dumb.

She looked around and noted that there were no cameras to be found, which she thought to be strange. After all, if these were descendants of warlords that were in prominent positions, it was very likely that they would have been a little bit more vigilant with their security. No matter, because this meant that her job would be much, much easier.

She pulled out her phone, and opened the camera app. Holding it up until the top of the gate was barely in the frame, she tapped the screen and squinted her eyes slightly. Riko didn't usually have the luxury of high-tech gadgets while she was on a solo mission to steal — yes, steal. 'Retrieving' was just a term they used to avoid admitting to any crimes — because she usually ended up losing them in the process, and while the Varia could afford to replace them, it was a hassle. That was why when she had been in a museum taking a picture of a glass-encased treasure in France a few years back, she had discovered that the invisible laser security barriers showed up as waves on her phone's camera.

Bless her habit for taking touristy pictures.

Waves did not show up. "Huh, strange," she muttered to herself as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. Was it odd that there was no extra security? Yes, but Riko decided to not pursue the matter. Maybe they had great faith in the security of Namimori's neighbourhoods, who knew?

She took a brisk walk around the perimeter of the mansion, which took ten minutes due to the sheer size of the estate. By the time she had reached the starting point, she had already pinpointed a blind spot where there were trees to obscure her from any windows in the mansion. She easily scaled up a lamp post from the outside, and vaulted herself over to the top of the concrete fence.

"O-kay! Might as well…" Riko pulled out her iPod, unravelling the white earbuds and inserted them into her ears. Scrolling down a list of playlists, Riko stopped at one named 'Mission: Boss Ass Bitch', and with a grin, she pressed the button and music started playing in her ears.

Pocketing the music player, she then silently tapped her way along the fence and launched herself towards the verdant canopy of a tree. Landing with a rustle, she carefully scaled down the branches, humming and quietly singing along to the song underneath her breath as she worked.

"I've got the mooOOOOooOOves like Jagger…" she sang softly as she studied the layout of the mansion from where she stood.

It was a traditional Japanese mansion, with an immaculate rock garden that spanned close to a quarter of the total area of the estate. There was a large pond next to a well-polished porch, with a bamboo fountain that clicked periodically as it filled up with water and tipped it out. Massive koi fish swam lazily in the water; bright flashes of orange, black, red, gold and white clashing brilliantly against the grey of the rocky bottom.

Beside the pond, Riko could see stumps of trees that had been cut down, and there were gardening tools heaped in a small pile nearby. A small platform had been erected close to where the tree stumps were, and from what she knew about Japanese tradition, it was probably a platform for tea ceremonies. Beyond the garden, there was nothing else but the massive structure of the mansion.

Fuck, these people were rich.

Riko closed her eyes, recalling the instructions detailing where the chalice would be. The central area apparently had a garden inside as well, and along the corridor that bordered around that, there would be a massive room full of displays.

'_Whatever you do, don't fucking take anything else!' _Squalo had written.

Tch. Did he think she was some sort of fucking kleptomaniac? It was just that one time! And they had stored it with a bunch of useless junk, anyway!

"It's going down, I'm yelling timBER!"

Riko grinned at the song as she stealthily slipped through an open rice-papered door, and tiptoed across the empty tatami room. Stopping at the closed door, she slowly slid it open and peered out.

Empty.

And Jesus Christ, there really was another garden!

Riko shook her head — now was not the time to be ogling. She silently sprinted down the corridor, and thankfully, a lot of the doors had been left open. She paused at the next corner, and a room bathed in a vermillion glow attracted her attention. If there was one thing she had learned from her experience as a retrieval expert, it was that priceless objects were usually kept in rooms with special lighting. And the orange-hued glare of the lights was definitely different from the other room whose lights had been switched off.

She peered inside, and a massive grin crossed her face as she was met with a fantastic sight of glass cases erected along the middle of the room, as well as the sides. Seemingly priceless artefacts lay pristinely inside the glass boxes, and as she looked at the walls, she could see that there was a mixture of Asian and European weapons that came from different eras mounted against the walls.

This was definitely the home of the descendants of warlords.

She looked around for her target, and spotted a gleam of silver down the end. Briskly crossing the room, she stopped at a table where various trinkets lay glittering against velvet cushions. Riko raised an eyebrow. "No glass for these?"

Indeed, the trinkets were vulnerable to thievery as they lay unprotected on the wooden counters. It was, once again, odd, but Riko decided that these people were either really, really stupid or really, really rich.

The chalice, albeit more polished than it had been in the picture, was exactly as it had been in the picture. Riko picked it up, extracting a cloth from the pocket in her jumper and wrapped it around the cup. She then carefully tucked it against her abdomen, strapping the leather belt around the stem of the cup, and pulled at it to ensure that it was secure.

"Mission accomplished," she said with a satisfied smirk. Well! That had been a lot more easier than Squalo had said it would be! That Kisame, always worrying for nothing…

"We're rich and we're young! You know you lo-,"

She turned around, and stopped dead in her tracks. Her jaw dropped open, and her blood ran cold as her eyes met a pair of very familiar eyes of blue-grey that glinted with amusement and malice.

Standing in front of her, despite the absence of his usual uniform and scarlet band, and instead dressed in a black kinagashi, it was unmistakably the very object of her nightmares and agony.

Hibari Kyoya.

"Why, it looks like a little herbivore has managed to wander in…"

* * *

DIDJA ALL EXPECT THAT?

Ahem. Sorry about that. I know it's a recurring theme for it to always be Hibari. Heh. I got a little bit excited writing this chapter. Anyways, lots of fun stuff planned for the next few chapters, so stay tuned! Reviews are greatly appreciated, and questions are very welcome. c:

PS The songs mentioned in this chapter are as follows:

_**Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5  
**__**Timber - Kesha  
**__**Rich & Young - Ola**_

''Til the next chapter!

Delphoxi


	11. The Sparrow

Missed an update last week, I have no good excuse except that I was having a rough week (insert sympathetic crowd aww sound file here) and blablabla was uninspired etcetcetc but now I'm good. c:

Once again, thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! This story has over 50 followers now, and I'm happy to say that with each passing day, the follower count increases! It's quite humbling to know that there are this many people following this story, and I hope I can continue to interest you with my future chapters and have your support!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

Of _fucking_ course it was Hibari. She should've known.

It was, to put it bluntly, odd to see Hibari dressed in such a casual manner. Now that she thought more about it, it had actually always been quite difficult to imagine the infamous Hibari Kyoya having a life outside of the four walls of school. That was, until now, of course.

He took a step towards her, and there was an absence of the usual clicking of his shoes. Instead, he was barefooted, but something about his silent footsteps made them a lot more scarier than his regular ones.

As she backed away from him, Riko swallowed thickly when she felt the cold concrete of the wall behind her pressed against her back. She nervously noted that there were no possible escape routes now - Hibari had _definitely_ not been included in the calculations of the mission outcome.

Closing his arms over her, Riko's head was caught in a prison of Hibari's limbs and face. His steely eyes were mere inches away from hers, burning with sadism as they bore into her skittishly darting eyes. It was as if she would turn into stone if she made eye contact with him. As he usually did, his hand drew back momentarily to pull down the goggles that masked half of her face before closing the prison he had made around Riko again.

Riko flinched when she felt cold fingertips grazing her hipbone. When the fuck had he slipped his other hand underneath her shirt?! Instead of yelling at him for breaching her personal space, the acrobat remained silent, lest her cries attracted unwanted attention from the other residents of the mansion.

Job first, survival later.

Holding her breath and squeezing her eyes shut, Riko stood frozen as Hibari slowly moved his hand up the side of her abdomen. She would have to thank her lucky stars, she supposed, for the fact that she wasn't ticklish. Uncontrollable laughter in a situation like this was the furthest thing from being appropriate at the moment, that much she knew.

A foreboding shiver trickled down her spine as Hibari's chilly hand was stopped by the obstruction of the chalice she had hidden moments ago. A wicked smirk played at his lips, as he raised a dark eyebrow.

"Oh? And it seems you've taken a souvenir, too."

His fingers deftly unworked the leather strap that held the chalice in place, and as the slip of cowhide fell uselessly onto the wooden floor, Hibari pulled his hand out from underneath her jumper. The chalice glittered prettily under the burnt orange lights, winking in an almost excruciatingly teasing manner at Riko.

"Stealing is an act of recidivism, herbivore," Riko was fervently praying that there was a god or two out there that would pull her out of this sticky mess, "And for your recidivist acts, I have to discipline you."

"But you don't even have your weapons!"

The words came out of her mouth before she could rein them in, and she instantly regretted it. Hibari lifted an eyebrow at her sudden outburst; her silence had been broken.

"Don't I?"

Those were words she had been hoping that he wouldn't say.

The dark-haired prefect dipped his hands into the folds of his kinagashi. The sleeves hitched up his arm as his forearms crossed, revealing the infamous cloud bracelet that Riko had been warned so many times about.

An opening!

In an instant, Riko had bolted from where she had been previously trapped, and was now perched on top of a massive display case that housed various aged daggers.

Hibari remained where he was, only turning around with a half-smile that was promising torture and pain in the next ten minutes of Riko's future. His fingers were wrapped around the handles of his tonfa; the bracelet once more hidden by the long sleeve of his kinagashi.

"What, no bracelet powers?"

"Oh? The herbivore wants me to camb-"

Riko's eyes widened. "Don't you fucking dare!"

"-io forma, Roll."

"Kyuu!" A high-pitched squeak emitted from Hibari's wrist, and a burst of white light flared in the room, momentarily blinding Riko.

Dark spots stippled her vision as she blinked to compose herself. A sudden presence of body heat behind her back made her shove her hands against the edge of the glass case, and used her feet to propel herself towards the wooden beams of the ceiling.

Crouching in the cramped space between the ceiling and the beam, Riko could see that Hibari was a whole sight different now.

He still wore his kinagashi, but he now had a dark, sweeping trench coat draped over it. His tonfa were now sectioned with black metal, and for a few seconds Riko had been drawn into the vibrant embroidery that spanned the inside of his coattails.

"Nice dress, Kyoya. Really loving the bird design," Riko's voice floated from the beam towards the Cloud Guardian.

Hibari looked up at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. Did this herbivore have no skills other than to constantly flee with an impressive amount of speed as well as mouthing off uselessly to taunt her opponents?

His thumbs swiped over to release the catches, and chains dropped down from the ends of the metal rods. As he swung an arm back, fuschia flames licked up the length of the chain, and it extended at an incredible rate, almost as if it were stretching, towards where Riko had hidden herself.

The metal chain instantly wound around her ankle, and Hibari's eyes darkened with satisfaction. He had caught his prey.

He roughly yanked the tonfa back, and was met with surprise when the chain retracted back empty-ended.

His cool facade was almost broken when momentary confusion took over him. He could have sworn that he had caught her. He had watched it curling around her leg!

His head snapped up to see Riko quite literally flying across the room, before catching another beam and slipping herself in the space beneath the ceiling again. A gunmetal strip glinted at her ankle - the chain.

She had managed to cut herself free. But how?

An ache started to gnaw in his chest; a deep yearning slowly sprouting from the seeds of intrigue that had been sowed from their first meeting. Blood thrummed in his ears as the lust for battle started to grow inside him.

He swung the chain at her again, and his eyes caught a flash of red whizzing through the air, before broken bits of metal lay uselessly on the ground.

"Impressive, herbivore," Hibari spoke as he looked up towards the ceiling, "It seems as if you do have some fight in you, after all."

From where she crouched, Riko narrowed her eyes at the prefect's words of apparent praise. Was he attempting to lure her out of hiding? "You know, if taunting's my specialty, there's no way I'm going to be taunted by you."

A malicious smirk found its way to the brunette's face. "Me? Taunt you? I would never be so weak as to use that as a battle tactic," Hibari scoffed, "I'm going to make you come out of hiding."

Riko blinked. "Make me? How the fuck-"

She was cut off abruptly when the section of wood beneath her suddenly gave away, and Riko quickly grabbed hold of the beam next to the one she had been on, and horror registered on her face when she realised that Hibari was slowly destroying the ceiling with his chains.

"You idiot! You're going to make this entire room fucking collapse on us if you do that!"

Hibari didn't reply, but the expression on his face said it all. He didn't care if that happened, as long as he got to bite her to death. Riko swore loudly as she narrowly avoided being caught in the tangle of chains again. Squalo was going to get it if that was the last thing she did before Hibari killed her! How had the simple fact that this was Hibari Kyoya's home slip him!?

As a fair bit of the ceiling was already lying on the floor in broken wooden shards, Hibari stopped his assault to assess his prey's situation. She was still attempting to evade him, he noted, and before he knew it, scarlet patches where whizzing towards him, and he sidestepped before they could hit him.

"Kyoya?"

The foreign voice seemed to echo in the massive room, which was now half-filled with wooden debris. Riko curiously dipped her head below the beam to see who had spoken, and a grimace unknowingly made its way to her face as she immediately drew her head back in horror.

"Mother."

A dark-haired woman stood in the open doorway. She bore a striking resemblance to Hibari, save for her dark brown eyes. Her face was small, with a very faint softness that did not subtract from the severity of her features. She was dressed very simply in a powder-blue yukata, but radiated a regality and power that had made Riko retract immediately upon seeing her.

As she scanned her son from top to bottom, taking in the elaborately-patterned trench coat, as well as the tonfa-chain hybrid weapon he carried, her lips pursed very slightly. "Kyoya, I believe I've told you that this sort of activity belongs outside."

Hibari's expression did not budge.

"And I believe these are yours?"

His mother held up a small deck of playing cards, which was met with confusion as Hibari had never once seen them in his life, before his mother raised her head towards the ceiling and said, "Kyoya's friend, am I correct in assuming these are yours? Please forgive me, but I don't believe we've met."

Because she had not been expecting to be noticed, much less spoken to, Riko jumped with a start when Hibari's mother had spoken to her, and she lost her balance and fell off the wooden beam she had been hiding in.

Landing with a loud thud, Riko hastily scrambled onto her feet and with great reluctance, walked towards where Hibari stood across from his mother.

A wary, mistrustful look was cast in both Hibari and his mother's directions. "Er, _buongiorno signora_."

"An Italian-speaking child?" Hibari's mother lifted a delicate eyebrow, "Are you not Japanese?"

Oh, fuck. If his mother was anything like Hibari… "No! Yes! I mean, I am Japanese! Half-Japanese! I'm Chinese-Japanese!" Riko felt her ears burn with embarrassment as the words ran uselessly against her tongue, "M-My name is Rang Yiko! No! It's Yang Riko!"

"Hibari Suzume," she said slowly, her russet eyes analytically sweeping over Riko's clothes, "Do you not bow to your elders?"

"I-"

"She's not from here, mother," Hibari interrupted. His tone was a scathing one, which made Riko want to crawl back to the safety of the ceiling. She was definitely knee-deep in an awkward situation that she had no business being in. It was clear that Hibari was anything but pleased with his mother's appearance. His Vongola weapon had transformed back into the cloud bracelet around his wrist, but his tonfa were still in his hands, and something told Riko that strict mother or not, Hibari would not be afraid to use it to throw a tantrum.

Riko shuffled back slightly.

"Get some tea prepared for your guest, Kyoya," Suzume said softly, her eyes never leaving Riko, "Receive her properly, won't you?"

"Mother-"

"Get some tea," Suzume's cold gaze turned onto her son, "And bring it to the guest room."

Hibari's eyes narrowed at his mother's icy tone, but said nothing as he turned around and left the room.

"And you, Yang Riko, it was quite rude of you to visit without informing anyone first. Now you want to leave without informing anyone as well?"

Riko froze in her tracks, turning her head robotically to face the dark-haired woman as a lie started to formulate on her tongue. "No, _signora _Suzume. I was just er, checking the damage Kyoya did to the room. Am I going to get a bill-?"

Because Squalo would _definitely_ use that as an excuse to make a Riko-kebab for dinner.

"Oh, what, this little mess?" Suzume started walking out of the room, which Riko took as a cue to trail after her, "Kyoya, more often than not, makes these messes when he throws a tantrum. Although I loathe to admit, he has a lot of tantrums. I assume it must be teenage angst, but who knows what's going on in that boy's mind these days?"

"_Voi e me entrambi, sorella_," Riko muttered under her breath.

"Did you say something, Yang Riko?"

"N-No, _signora_ Suzume."

* * *

Decided to split one long chapter into two, since my chapters are usually pretty short and I'd like to keep it that way. The next part is on the way, so I hope you liked this one and are looking forward to the next! Review to let me know how you liked it and/or if you have any questions!

**Italian Translations**

_buongiorno - good morning OR hello (formal)_  
_signora - madam_  
_Voi e me entrambi, sorella - you and me both, sister_

Delphoxi


	12. The Bad Lies

GUYS I FINALLY GOT MY DRIVER'S LICENSE! But I'll still be a hermit at home because my sister's hogged the car we were meant to share and now I have to ask her for permission at least a day in advance if I want to use it!?

Anyways, thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! They're all very encouraging and I hope I can continue to interest you with my future chapters and have your support!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

As she sat stiffly with her legs folded into each other on the floor cushion, Riko could not help but have the following train of thoughts whilst busily avoiding eye contact with the much older woman sitting primly with her legs folded neatly underneath her:

First, this was _the_ woman that had birthed the child of Satan, Hibari Kyoya!

And if one got over the initial shock of coming to terms with the fact that Hibari was, in fact, a proper human (Biologically speaking, of course. Not much could be said for his personality.) and not an alien from a war-torn planet, it made a lot of sense that Suzume was Hibari's mother. She exuded a chilly, regal aura that made Riko fear her a lot more than she did Hibari.

Second, Hibari Kyoya was a rich kid!

Who would've guessed?! On their three-minute walk from the display room to the guest room, Riko's well-trained eyes had catalogued countless priceless artefacts decorating the Japanese mansion, and the total value in that short walk alone had been more than she would ever be able to afford in ten lifetimes. That made Hibari's hobby of extorting money out of innocent people redundant, but then again, he _was_ the Demon of Namimori, so nothing he did ever made sense.

And lastly, if she put together all the things she knew about Hibari before this new revelation, it suddenly displayed a much clearer picture of the background Hibari came from. The structured Japanese tradition that oozed even from the soil of the estate, the known ancestry of warlords… Of course, the picture was still riddled with wisps of mystery, but she was beginning to understand that the prefect was not a mere embodiment of wrath, authority and terror like she had assumed.

Riko wasn't a complete idiot, and she could tell that Hibari and his mother did_ not_ have a sugary relationship that involved frequent displays of affection.

_Clack!_

The sound of an object being placed on the ground tore Riko out of her thoughts. A grotesque hybrid of a yelp and a growl left her mouth when she came face to face with a stony Hibari, and with the absence of her goggles (She had decided to leave them off, in case Suzume, like her son, took them off for her) she felt very unsafe with the sudden closeness between herself and the prefect, with his face only inches away from hers.

"Tea."

"A fucking hello to you, too, Kyoya."

Hibari's eyelids lowered as he looked down, and Riko's gaze followed to see that a small lacquer tray had been set up in front of her, and a ceramic mug filled with a steaming verdant liquid had been placed on top of the tray. A pleasant aroma wafted up into her nose, and Riko immediately narrowed her eyes when she detected a strong bitterness.

"Did you-"

"No," Hibari cut in before she could finish her question as he took a seat on the cushion next her, "I did not poison it."

"And you think I'll fucking believe whatever you say!?"

"I think that you should know me well enough to know that I-"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You're so fucking great that all you need are your two fists to massacre the entire world."

"I'm happy you feel that way, herbivore."

"Shut the fuck up! _You're_ the herbivore!"

xxxx

A few feet away, Suzume watched with interest as she sipped delicately at the china she held between her hands. It was the first time that Kyoya had had a friend over, and knowing her son, she was probably being quite liberal in using the word 'friend' to refer to Riko with.

Still, this was an interesting display of social interaction by Kyoya; a side of her son that Suzume had, quite frankly, never seen before. If he ever spoke more than a single sentence to anyone, it was usually to threaten them. However, this seemed to be an idle conversation that was leading to nowhere, which was something that Kyoya never ever bothered to take part in.

The girl herself was interesting on her own. Despite the fact that the only security their estate had was the concrete fence that surrounded it, no one in their right mind would attempt to infiltrate the Hibari estate and dream to make off with the many treasures it contained, because Kyoya himself was all the protection they needed. She was either very foolishly brave or extremely uninformed, but since she knew Kyoya, it was probably the former. Shame, too, because she did seem to have a sensible head on her shoulders.

Still, it wasn't everyday that there was a person that could talk straightforwardly in her son's face (albeit the crude language and lack of etiquette left much to be desired. She was sitting like a man!) without running away immediately. Kyoya wasn't shy about hitting people in general, so she imagined that the girl had probably taken a fair few hits from the brunette, which made the fact that she was still brave enough to stand her ground, quite impressive in its own right.

"So, Yang Riko," Suzume decided to interrupt what seemed like a very one-sided argument, "Did you come here with the intention of visiting Kyoya?"

Riko appeared to be startled by her question, but Suzume was more interested in-

"I invited her here, mother," Hibari replied, meeting his mother's gaze unflinchingly, "I must have forgotten to inform you."

Intriguing.

Suzume smiled, and Hibari narrowed his eyes slightly. What was going on in his mother's mind?

Riko's eyes widened with surprise as she stared at Hibari. Had he finally lost it? Why on earth was he covering for her? She started to open her mouth to object, but the chilling glare he gave her from the corner of his eye made her shut her mouth again. Beggars shouldn't be choosers, as Mammon always liked to say, and this was probably the only time Hibari would ever bother to help her out of a sticky situation. (But he'd probably make her pay him back by torturing her the next time he saw her)

"Well, I apologise for the misunderstanding," Suzume's expression was unreadable as she spoke, something which spooked Riko a whole lot more than a livid Hibari did, "So Kyoya mentioned earlier that you're not a native of Japan?"

The acrobat nodded slowly. "I was born in Europe."

"Whereabouts in Europe? Italy, perhaps? You seem quite attached to the language."

"No, I was born in Germany. We stayed for a year and a half after I was born before we moved again," Riko smiled nervously, "Before I came to Japan I was living in Italy, and if I hadn't moved here, next year would've been my fifth year living there."

"So you've just migrated here? What for?"

"Er, work."

"What do your parents do?"

"Entertainment."

"Actors? Musicians?"

"Well-"

"Mother," Hibari interrupted, "The herbivore needs to leave."

Both Riko and Suzume looked at the brunette with identical expressions of surprise. Suzume turned back towards Riko and asked, "Do you need to be somewhere else, Yang Riko?"

Yes!

She could almost hear the angelic chorus singing in the background as the golden beam of freedom split the murky clouds of awkward entrapment within the Hibari estate. Mentally wiping a tear away, Riko nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes I do. But this was_ so_ lovely, _signora_ Suzume, your hospitality was _ever _so kind," she quickly stood up, "Well, I'll be seeing myself out now, _ciao!"_

She left the tatami room as quickly as she could without openly running, leaving Hibari alone with his mother.

"Kyoya-"

"I'll see her out," Hibari cut in coldly, and within seconds he was gone.

Suzume sipped at her tea and sighed.

"When will those teenagers realize that I can see through every poorly-concocted lie they think of?"

xxxx

"Herbivore."

Riko broke into a mad dash when she heard his voice. There was no way in hell she was going to walk back willingly into the arms of the devil!

"Oof!"

Unless the devil could jump over her like the superhuman he was, and stand in her way, of course.

Swearing loudly as she got back onto her feet, Riko glared at the impassive brunette through her goggles. "What the fuck is up with you?! You've basically just kicked me out - which, by the way, is something I'm actually grateful for, so _grazie_ - but now you're trying to keep me in!?"

"You left your souvenir, herbivore," Hibari said with wicked smirk as he held up the chalice that had caused Riko so much trouble, "Do you not want it?"

Riko narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What's the catch, Kyoya?"

"Nothing," He tossed the antique carelessly in her direction, and Riko scrambled to catch it before it landed on the ground, "We have no use for this, and besides-," A chill frosted her spine as Hibari's eyes darkened and his smirk got wider, "-I would _hate _for my prey to be eaten by another carnivore."

"I am_ not _your prey!"

Hibari said nothing as he opened the door and stepped aside as he yawned widely. Sliding a hand into the obi tied around his waist, he jerked his head towards the path outside the door. "Go on."

Riko shuffled sideways, taking caution with every move she made, and her eyes never leaving Hibari. She slowly backed out of the house, and stopped when she was completely outside.

A pregnant silence filled the air around the two as they stared at each other.

"Er…"

"Don't you want to leave, herbivore?"

"S-Shut up! I was just about to!" Riko huffed, "But I have to say thank you for helping me, otherwise it'd be rude if-"

_SLAM!_

The words died on Riko's tongue as she stared at the closed door with her jaws parted. Then, she frowned.

"WELL FUCK YOU TOO!"

xxxx

As he walked down the wooden corridor, Hibari's eye caught flashes of white stark against the dark, wooden wainscot that panelled the wall. Crouching down, he slid a hand over the wood, and stopped.

It was a card. They were all cards.

Hadn't his mother returned an incomplete deck of cards to the herbivore when she had interrupted their spar?

Hibari pulled them out, running his fingers over the cracks in the wood where the cards had sliced into. He touched the edge of a card, and noted that it was a regular playing card — not one that had been modified to have razor-blade edges. If that was the case, that meant that it wasn't possible for them to have been embedded so deeply into the wood, much less cut through metal.

How had she done it?

* * *

And a chapter of character development ends! This was fun. Review to let me know how you liked it and/or if you have any questions! c:

_**Translations**_

_signora - madam/miss_  
_ciao - bye (informal)_  
_graze - thank you_

Delphoxi


	13. The First Interlude

The thirteenth chapter on the spookiest day of the year!

Once again, thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! This story has over 50 followers now, and I'm happy to say that with each passing day, the follower count increases! It's quite humbling to know that there are this many people following this story, and I hope I can continue to interest you with my future chapters and have your support!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

When Riko had reached home, she had immediately gone to find Squalo in his room, fully intending to yell at him for not telling her that her target had been Hibari's family. However, when she got there, she oddly lost all her previous resolve to do so. Instead, the following conversation had happened instead:

"Hey, Kisame."

"VOI! Do I need to fucking rip your tongue off for you to stop calling me that!?"

"Goblet of Fire, just like you wanted."

She tossed the chalice towards him, and he easily caught it without moving from his chair.

"Che."

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before Squalo looked up from his desk for the first time since Riko had come in, which was littered with paperwork that Xanxus was meant to do but because it was Xanxus, the swordsman had to do it for his boss instead. He was oddly responsible when it came to the temperamental man. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"The fuck're you still for? Don't you need to go fawn over some fucking anime character or something?"

Riko stared at him, but with more curiosity than anger. "Did you know?"

"Did I fucking know what?"

"That it was Kyoya's house."

"Who the fuck is Kyoya?"

"Tsunayoshi's cloud guardian."

"What, Hibari? Of course I fucking knew. It was in the file, bitch."

"This file? The mission file?" She held up the packet she'd been given earlier this morning.

"Did I give you another one? Of fucking course, that's the one! What's your problem anyway? Did you run into him or something?"

"Nothing like that."

Huh. Riko surprised herself. She had lied. Not that she never told lies, but she certainly never lied about something that happened on a mission.

"Then why are you asking such fucking useless questions!?"

"_Ciao_."

"Wha- VOI! Where are you going!? Answer my fucking question, bitch!"

Riko ignored her captain and left his room.

The file hadn't said anything about the residents of the mansion. But Squalo had said that the file had information stating that it was Hibari's home. Yet, she had looked through each and every page in there at least ten times, and not once had the name 'Hibari' come up in any of the paragraphs.

Odd.

xxxx

"Shall I pick you up after school, Ri-chan?"

"Don't even fucking bother, Lussuria."

"Just give me a call if you need mommy to come pick you up, kay? Have a great day at school!"

"How about I don't?"

"Do your family proud! _Ciao_!"

"Fuck. You."

Lussuria blew a kiss from the rolled-down window of the car as it drove off, and Riko glared in response. She turned around, and surprise, surprise! Hibari was at the gates, probably waiting for her. He was beginning to familiarise himself with Riko's penchant for escaping, and that unnerved her. Riko clicked her tongue as she slowly walked towards the entrance of the school, taking her sweet time, despite the fact that homeroom was starting in five minutes. The later she was, the better. She wasn't going to be a model student, that much was already apparent.

"You're going to be late, herbivore," was the first thing he said when she was within earshot.

"So are you," she retorted, stopping in front of him with her arms folded across her chest, "No doors for you to slam in my face today. Pity, huh?"

Hibari's expression was cool as he regarded her with indifferent eyes. Riko arched an eyebrow expectantly, waiting for him to say something in response to her snarky comment.

He didn't.

"Well, this has been a lovely waste of time, but I really must get going now."

Waving a careless hand, Riko started walking again, but could only advance a few steps before she felt the sleeve of her shirt being pulled back with a rough tug. With a yelp, she stumbled backwards, and into Hibari, who shoved a hand into her neck to stop her from completely making bodily contact with him.

"The fuck was that for!?" she yelled as she wrenched the unfilled sleeve out of his hand, and attempted to pull his hand off her neck, which was an attempt in futility.

"Your sleeves are too long, herbivore," his fingers tightened a little around her neck, "It's not the proper uniform. And so are these." His other hand reached up to her face, fingers tapping the tinted lenses of her goggles before he pulled them down.

"You're the fucking pot calling the kettle black!" Riko growled, "Your uniform isn't even the school's uniform! At least I'm wearing the one issued by the school!"

It was true. Albeit it was unkempt and messy, Riko was indeed wearing the required combination of the white button-down and cream-hued skirt, although the navy blazer was stuffed inside her backpack. Hibari, however, was wearing the black goukon he had taken to wearing in middle school, which often stood out in the hallways of Namimori High as he walked through them.

"I wear what I want," Hibari smirked, "And a uniform is still a uniform, as long as it's proper."

Riko decided to drop the uniform debate, knowing that it was only going to be a waste of her time. "Just let me go to fucking class already!"

"No."

"Why the fuck not!?"

"Tell me about these."

Riko raised an eyebrow when his free hand slipped into his pants pocket, and pulled out a hand of cards. He spread them with a push of his thumb, and they fanned out in front of her face. He looked at her expectantly. "Well?"

"They're just some playing cards, obviously," Riko scoffed, rolling her eyes, "And you've got an extremely incomplete deck, too. Lost the others, have you? Would you like me to give you some recommendations on where to buy new ones?"

"These aren't mine, herbivore."

"Jesus, did you steal them off someone? Christ, Kyoya, at least have some decency to steal the entire deck! There's nothing more annoying than an incomplete deck of cards!"

"You would know, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I fucking would! So would everyone else! It's a basic human pet peeve!"

"Would you like them back?"

She blinked. "Wait, what?"

"My mother returned some of your cards to you. Obviously, these are the rest of them. I found them after you left last weekend."

The memories of the events that had transpired a few days ago flashed in the assassin's mind, and cringed as she recalled the particularly awkward tea she had with Hibari and his mother, Suzume.

"I don't want them."

"Well, _I_ want you to tell me about them."

"Why the fuck should I?"

"Because I said so."

His fingers tightened more around her neck, and Riko could feel a prickling in her cheeks as she started to choke from the slowly-receding supply of air in her trachea. A sadistic cruelty gleamed in his grey eyes as they met Riko's panicked gaze. He wasn't going to kill her, she knew, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to torture her.

"C-Cards-!"

"Yes?"

"Kyo-ya…Neck…" She urgently started rapping at his arm with her hands, feeling panic rising in her chest.

Riko inhaled deeply when she felt his grip loosen, the previous hysteria slowly abating as fresh air entered her lungs. If there was one thing she hated, it was being tight spaces, and getting close to asphyxiation was just like being in a tight, airless place. A fingertip tapped against her bare skin expectantly, and Riko glared at Hibari.

"That was so fucking unnecessary!"

His response was to tighten his grip again.

"A-air!" she smacked his arm again.

"What about the cards?"

"St-"

"Hibari-senpai!"

Hibari and Riko looked away from each other to see a panicked boy with a pompadour that meant he was one of Hibari's self-proclaimed lackeys. Hibari narrowed his eyes, but Riko had a suspicion that it was not because he was trying to intimidate the first-year delinquent for interrupting him, but was instead attempting to remember his name.

"What is it?" And had failed at it, apparently. Riko held back a snicker.

"Ku-Kusakabe-senpai's in the hospital."

Riko vaguely remembered the name, but her sharp eyes picked up the slight shift in Hibari's otherwise stony expression. Whoever this Kusakabe person was, he had to be somewhat important if it pulled a smidgen of reaction out of the infamously uncaring Hibari Kyoya.

"Which one?"

"The one on Shiba Road."

A strangled cough left her mouth when Hibari's hand slid down her neck, grabbed the collar of her shirt and started dragging her along with him. The first-year was left staring worriedly after them. Her feet scrambled to match his long strides. "Kyo- let me go! Where the fuck are you going!?"

She did not get a reply, however, as Hibari continued walking very quickly down the pavement, and the school was already fading into a blur in the distance as they got further away.

"Who's Kusakabe?" She decided to ask, having given up on freeing herself from his grip. She knew he was most likely going to ignore her question, but what was the harm in trying, anyway?

"A man that I trust."

His answer surprised her.

And then it clicked in her brain.

"John Revolta?"

His expression hardened.

* * *

I debated back and forth on whether or not to split another long chapter, but in the end, I decided to do it. Not a very inspired chapter, I know, but let's hope the next few ones make up for this! This chapter's purpose was to introduce another mini-plot of sorts, so do look forward to my next updates!

Delphoxi


	14. The Nile

Thank you for all the follows/reviews/favourites! It's quite humbling to know that there are this many people following this story, and I hope I can continue to interest you with my future chapters and have your support!

Disclaimer: FANfiction. I only own the OC. Any changes to the original canon story is due to the fact that this is fanfiction.

Warning: May contain coarse language.

* * *

Riko didn't quite know why she was still at Hibari's side when they reached the hospital. Multiple explanations crossed her mind, and she tested them out with herself as they entered the multi-levelled concrete building.

It wasn't because his hand was still attached to her collar — he had released his grip on her a few blocks ago.

Fear of him hunting her down? No, it was definitely not that. She wasn't afraid of being hunted down by Hibari anymore — he had done it so many times that she had already lost count.

Did she feel like it was her responsibility to stay with him while he went through what seemed like a hard situation for him? Not at all. It felt more like she wanted to, rather than an obligation.

The conclusion she arrived at surprised her. She genuinely wanted to stay with Hibari, even if that meant dealing with possible tantrums later on, and having to receive the brunt of them.

Why?

Her gaze slid askance to assess the cloud guardian's emotional state. Or rather, the lack thereof. His face was still stony, and seemingly unfeeling. He had not uttered a word since Riko had discovered that it was Kusakabe that was in the hospital.

Seeing the reception desk, Riko started to deviate towards where a nurse sat, but was stopped as Hibari grabbed the back of her collar and pulled her along with him again. Riko yelped in surprise when she felt her body being yanked back against her will, and looked up to see Hibari say to a passing nurse, "Kusakabe Tetsuya."

The nurse had a nervous expression on her face, but it seemed as if she was familiar with Hibari and his methods, as she stuttered, "R-Room thirteen in the east wing."

Hibari's pace was quick, and Riko caught up with him much more easily than she had been able to half an hour ago. They passed many closed doors, as well as medical personnel, most of which blanched when they saw the Namimori High prefect's stormy expression.

Riko found herself vaguely wondering what Hibari had done to rise to such infamy in a hospital, but smug suspicion which she chose to ignore rested in the back of her mind.

She felt his grip loosen, and realised that he had stopped in front of a closed door. Room 13. A slip of paper with Japanese characters written on had been slotted into the mount on the door. Hibari easily read the foreign characters, and opened the door without knocking.

"Wow, you look like shit," was the first thing that thoughtlessly left Riko's mouth when she saw Kusakabe lying on the bed.

She wasn't wrong. And Hibari seemed to agree, too. He stopped at his righthand man's bedside, and glared down at him as Kusakabe slowly opened his eyes with evident confusion. One leg was elevated and encased in white plaster, while his right arm was wrapped in bandages. His face seemed to be where most of the damage was, with a bruised cheek, both eyes black and multiple cuts on his eyebrows and lips.

"Hibari-san?" he slowly shifted himself to sit up, and confusedly shifted his gaze between Hibari and Riko, who was awkwardly hovering behind Hibari. "Yang?"

Hibari's face was cold as he spoke. "Who did this?"

Kusakabe winced at his question. "Nobo-" he stopped when a familiar steel rod stopped inches away from his face.

Hibari's eyes gleamed with cold fury. "Let me repeat myself again: who did this?"

"S-Setsuna South High…"

Without another word, Hibari left the room, leaving the wounded male alone with the Varia acrobat.

"You done got beat up_ good_," Riko commented dryly as she gingerly sat at the edge of his bed. It was an odd situation for her to be in. She barely knew him, and here she was, making a hospital visit as if they were friends. Should she have stopped to buy some flowers from the gift shop?

"That's none of your business, Yang," Kusakabe growled, making Riko glad that she hadn't stopped to buy a get-well gift after all. He clearly wasn't too happy to see her. "And on that note, how on Earth did-"

"How did Kyoya find out that you were beaten to a bloody pulp?" Riko lifted an eyebrow; her tone sardonic, "You can't possibly expect anything to happen without the-all-knowing Kyoya finding out, can you?"

He seemed ready to say something, but closed his mouth before he did. Kusakabe's reluctant gaze never left Riko. "Why are _you_ here?"

"Good question," Riko shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't really know myself, except Kyoya was just about ready to kill me when one of his lackeys came running with the news that you were in the hospital nursing your wounds. Speaking of which, _why_ were you beat up?"

He winced at her question, as if he were reliving the physical damage that had been dealt to him earlier. "It's not easy being Hibari-san's righthand man, and it's not the first time I've been put in the hospital because of it. And you of all people know that Hibari-san isn't the kind of person with many friends."

"Don't I know it?" Riko affirmed dryly, "So they're targeted you because you're his best friend?"

"I'm not Hibari-san's best friend."

"The fuck you aren't."

"I really am not."

"Fuck you! That's bullshit."

"If he was, I would call him by his first name."

"What _is_ with that, anyway? In Europe, we avoid the confusion by using first names. It's _so _much easier that way."

"Well, not everyone's as disrespectful as you, Yang."

"Who're you calling disrespectful, Revolta!?"

"My name is Kusakabe Tetsuya, and I rest my case."

"What's the big deal, anyway? You're still his best friend, aren't you? If you weren't, he wouldn't give two fucks that you're in the hospital."

Kusakabe had no response for Riko's words. He averted his gaze to his bandaged hands, avoiding making eye contact with the acrobat.

xxxx

"Kyoya."

"Kyooooooooya."

"Kyoyaaaaa."

"Hibari _fucking_ Kyoya!"

Steely eyes pulled away from the texted paper on the wooden desk. "What do you want, herbivore?" His eyes narrowed as he added, "And use that chair properly."

Pleased that she had finally gotten Hibari to acknowledge her presence, Riko pulled her feet off the arms of the chair she was perched on, and sat back on it with a cheery grin. "I have some questions for you."

Hibari pulled another sheet of paper from the pile next to him, placing it on top of the one he had been previously reading. "What are they?"

"One: did you really beat up an entire gang of delinquents? If not, won't the remaining people jump someone else you care about again? And two: Revolta _is_ your best friend, am I right?"

With a scoff, the prefect picked up a pen and started writing on the blank spaces of the black-printed paper. "I administered punishment accordingly, but yes, a few herbivores managed to escape while my attention was occupied. They won't be 'jumping' anyone I care about again simply because I never had any people I cared about to begin with. And no, Kusakabe Tetsuya is not my best friend. I have no friends."

Riko raised a questioning eyebrow. "You're a fucking liar."

"I never lie."

"Yeah right you don't. You're a fucking liar and denial isn't just a river in Egypt."

Hibari narrowed his eyes. "I am not in denial."

"Yes, you are. And why is it so hard to admit that you have a friend, anyway, let alone a best friend?" Riko rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Honestly, some people are so unnecessarily uptight about these kinds of things. Bel's my best friend, and I'm not shy in admitting that fact. What's so hard about it? You care about him to a certain depth. Congratulations, you have a heart after all."

"You talk too much, herbivore," Hibari said after a very long pause. His eyes flickered towards Riko for a moment, before returning to his paperwork. "I don't see why my personal matters have to concern you."

"If you're all up in my business, it's only fair that I'm all up in yours!" Riko flushed when Hibari cocked an eyebrow at the hidden connotation in her statement, and she adamantly sputtered, "O-Of course I meant the platonic kind of business, ya nasty!"

"I don't quite understand what you're trying to get at, herbivore," Hibari masked the smirk that threatened to show on his face, "Leave now, before I lose my temper."

He didn't quite mean what he had said, but no doubt it had the desired effect on the girl. Riko hissed at him before quickly running to the door and disappeared down the hallway. Heaving the tiniest of sighs, Hibari placed his pen down again, and leaned back in his office chair.

What was that herbivore trying to do, messing with the order of things? He was the alpha, and Kusakabe Tetsuya was, no doubt, the beta. This little herbivore was hovering between being a gamma and an omega, and yet was attempting to prod a stick at the ecosystem like she was some sort of omnipotent being that could change the natural progression of life just because she wanted to.

Friends. Friendship. What was the use of either of those things? The very idea of friendship repulsed the antisocial cloud guardian, because it was basically synonymous to crowding, and he hated crowds. Friends were pointless, because they really were just weaknesses that people would target time and again, just like how Sawada Tsunayoshi's friends had been targeted.

However...

Sawada Tsunayoshi was strong. That was something Hibari had come to admit in the past few years since the little herbivore had scurried onto his radar with his explosive growth of power. He was strong, and yet had many friends. How did that work? What _was_ a friend, anyway? In what way could a person be considered a friend?

For the first time in a long time, Hibari Kyoya found himself wondering just what it meant to be a friend.

* * *

Bit of a risky chapter to write, but I decided to take that plunge and let it lead me wherever this story chooses to go! In the first chapter, I mentioned that this story would explore the organic development of a relationship between Hibari and Riko, and it was implied with that statement that it meant that I would be attempting to do character development with Hibari as well. Let's face it, Hibari and Kusakabe definitely went through some bro-bonding stuff in the ten years before the TYL! arc to reach the point where they're comfortable enough to call each other by shortened nicknames.

Anyways, I've rambled on enough already! Let me know how you liked or disliked this chapter, or if you have any questions! Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you in the next chapter!

Delphoxi


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